Reuters BEIJING: Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Wednesday the Iranian-allied Houthi movement would not be allowed to take over Yemen, as he accused Iran of seeking to sow unrest around the region.
The head of a Houthi-backed ruling council pledged readiness Monday to resume negotiations on ending Yemen's war but reserved the right to resist attacks by a Saudi-backed exiled government seeking to unseat it.
U.N.-sponsored talks to try to end 18 months of fighting collapsed in failure this month and the Houthi movement and allied forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh resumed shelling into neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The talks foundered after the Houthis and Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) announced the formation of the 10-member governing council on Aug 6., ignoring a warning by U.N. Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed that such a move would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions on how to solve the conflict.
Speaking to Reuters in Beijing, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the ball was in the Houthis' court as to whether peace talks resumed.
"What is certain, not questionable, certain, they will not be allowed to take over Yemen. Period. So the legitimate government will be defended," al-Jubeir said.
"The chance they have is to enter the political process, reach an agreement ... for the benefit of all Yemenis including the Houthis," he said.
Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies accuse the Houthis of being pawns of Iran and have launched a military intervention to restore Hadi to power.
The Houthis have held on, having made an alliance with Saleh, who enjoys the support of most of the military.
The Houthis and the GPC hold most of Yemen's northern half, while forces working for the exiled government share control of the rest of the country with tribes.
More than 6,400 people have been killed in the fighting, half of them civilians, and it has created a humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.
Speaking earlier to students at a Beijing university, al-Jubeir lambasted Iran.
"We see Iran supporting Houthis in Yemen and trying to take over the government, supply weapons to the Houthis, smuggle explosives to Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia," he said.
"We wish we could be as good neighbors like before the 1979 revolution," al-Jubeir said.
"It's up to Iran to mend its behaviour."
Over 10,000 killed in Yemen war, more than other estimates
Reuters SANAA: At least 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s 18-month-old civil war, said the United Nations Tuesday, approaching double the estimates of more than 6,000 cited by officials and aid workers for much of 2016. The war pits the Iran-allied Houthi group and supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, who is supported by an alliance of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia.
The new toll is based on official information from medical facilities in Yemen, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick told a news conference in the capital Sanaa. It might rise as some areas had no medical facilities, and people were often buried without official records.
The United Nations human rights office said last week that 3,799 civilians have been killed in the conflict, with airstrikes by the Arab-led coalition responsible for some 60 percent of deaths.
McGoldrick gave no breakdown on civilian casualties, adding the conflict has displaced 3 million Yemenis and forced 200,000 to seek refuge abroad. The United Nations had information that 900,000 of the displaced intended to try to return to their homes.
“This is a big challenge, especially in areas still experiencing conflict,” McGoldrick said.
Some 14 million of Yemen’s 26 million population needed food aid and 7 million were suffering from food insecurity.
McGoldrick said the human situation in Yemen was “tragic” “Humanitarian work alone cannot solve these problems,” he said.
U.N.-sponsored peace talks ended earlier this month without reaching an accord, and without an agreement for a new round.
The collapse of negotiations was followed by stepped-up fighting across Yemen.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after talks in Saudi Arabia last week that the United States, Gulf Arab states and the United Nations had agreed on a new push for peace.
He said the new talks would try to twin a proposal for the Houthis to withdraw from cities they seized since 2014 with setting up an inclusive government. | 
