Riyadh meeting supports legitimacy in Yemen: Egypt’s FM

CAIRO – 29 October 2017: Foreign ministers and chiefs of staff of the coalition forces supporting the elected Yemeni government held a meeting in Riyadh on Sunday.

“It is important to support legitimacy in Yemen, and it is a meeting of a political and military nature,” Ahmed Abu Zeid foreign ministry spokesperson said.

He added, during a phone call to Al Hayat Today program, that the alliance between Houthis and Saleh do not respond to all the peaceful initiatives to end the conflict, and maintaining the situation in Yemen threatens Arab and Egypt’s national securities.

The Houthis (or Ansar Allah), a Zaidi Shia movement and militant group thought to be backed by Iran, took control of the Yemeni government through a series of actions in 2014 and 2015.

In military operations on the ground, the Houthis were supported by sections of the Yemeni armed forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, ousted during a revolution that was part of the 2011 Arab Spring.

Houthi leaders claimed that Saudi Arabia was trying to break the alliance between Houthis and Saleh's supporters; reports claimed that Saleh's son, Ahmed Ali Saleh, had traveled to the Saudi capital to broker a deal to end the airstrikes. Saudi media, on the other hand, claimed that Saleh or his son had approached Riyadh seeking such a deal.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed that elements of the political solution in Yemen are found in the United Nations Security Council resolution, the Gulf initiative and the outcomes of the national dialog.