The GCC bloc has said that it would not stand idle in the face of factional foreign intervention in Yemen and called for the restoration of government’s writ in Sanaa.
GCC interior ministers meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday also reaffirmed the group’s support to the strife-torn country within the framework of UN resolutions and the Gulf-brokered initiative for peace and security.
“Yemen’s security and that of GCC states are one and the same,” said a statement released following the meeting, which was attended by Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Naif and intelligence chief Prince Khaled bin Bandar.
The meeting has added significance keeping in view the arrival of the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, following weeks of unrest in Sanaa? and the country’s failure to name a new head of government.
Benomar wrote on Facebook: “I am headed to Saudi Arabia on an official visit and I will continue my efforts to support Yemen in these difficult circumstances.”
The statement said that the Gulf interior ministers voiced deep concern over the threats targeting the government, its institutions and establishments in Yemen.
They condemned the armed acts that have taken place in Yemen, strongly denouncing the looting of people’s resources and assets.
The ministers stressed the need give back all premises and official establishments to the authority of the Yemeni state and to hand over all weapons, as well as public and private funds. Yemeni authorities have accused Iran of backing the Houthi rebels in the same way Iranians support Lebanon’s militia Hezbollah.
The GCC ministers said “that any threat to the security and safety of Yemen and its citizens is a threat to regional security and stability.”
They called the events “regretful” and expressed “serious concern at the threats faced by the Sanaa government and its institutions.”
on this occasion, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al-Sabah said that the meeting had also discussed the existing security procedures in the GCC member states and preparations for any emergency.
Under a United Nations-brokered peace deal, the rebels, who took control of Sanaa, are supposed to withdraw once a new neutral prime minister is named. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has so far failed to appoint a new government chief. The deal also required Hadi to name an adviser from within the rebel faction.
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