Riyadh-led campaign will be over in days: Yemen

Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen says door still open for dialogue with the Huthis

March 28, 2015 03:29 am | Updated 03:29 am IST - ADEN:

A Pakistani Shi'ite Muslim holds a sign as he chants slogans with others to condemn Saudi Arabia over its intervention in Yemen, during a protest organized by religious group Majlis-e-Wahdat-e Muslimeen (MWM) in Karachi.

A Pakistani Shi'ite Muslim holds a sign as he chants slogans with others to condemn Saudi Arabia over its intervention in Yemen, during a protest organized by religious group Majlis-e-Wahdat-e Muslimeen (MWM) in Karachi.

Yemen’s beleaguered government said Saudi-led airstrikes against its Huthi militia opponents would not last long on the second day of a Gulf Arab-led campaign against the Iranian-allied militia that could escalate a proxy conflict spreading through the region.

Warplanes targeted Huthi forces controlling Yemen’s capital and their northern heartland on Friday and, in a boost for Riyadh, fellow monarchy Morocco said it would join the rapidly-assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Shia Muslim group.

Tribes in Yemen’s oil producing Marib region said they supported the air campaign, but Huthi forces advanced south despite the airstrikes and Pakistan, named by Saudi Arabia on Thursday as a partner, said it had made no decision on whether to contribute.

Riyadh’s move is the latest front in a growing regional contest for power with Iran that is also playing out in Syria, where Tehran backs Mr. Assad’s government against mainly Sunni rebels, and Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shia militias are playing a major role in fighting.

Sunni monarchies in the Gulf are backing embattled Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his fellow Sunnis in the country’s south against the Shia advance.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen, asked if the campaign would last days, weeks or more, told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television: “I expect that this operation will not go on for long, I think it will be days.”

He said the door was still open for dialogue with the Huthis, while in a Facebook posting, Mr. Hadi urged Yemenis to be patient, saying the “rebels”, a reference to Huthis, would soon be gone.

But Huthi fighters and forces allied to Saleh entered the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa on Friday through the central province of Bayda, extending their reach into the south, according to tribal sources.

Mosques in Riyadh on Friday preached fiery sermons against the Huthis and their Iranian allies, describing the fight as a religious duty. Saudi Arabia’s top clerical council issued a fatwa on Thursday giving its blessing to the campaign.

In the Iranian capital Tehran, Friday prayer leader Ayatollah Kazem Sadeghi described the attacks as “an aggression and interference in Yemen’s internal affairs”.

Iran denounced the surprise assault on the Huthis and demanded an immediate halt to Saudi-led military operations and, on Friday, accused Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday of fomenting strife in the Middle East, rebuffing his accusation that Iran was trying to dominate the region.

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