CAIRO, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia is still committed to the unity, sovereignty and stability of Yemen through its support of the Yemeni legitimate government, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Tuesday.
The top Saudi diplomat made the remarks during a meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League (AL) headquarters in Cairo.
Al-Jubeir reaffirmed his country's cooperation with the efforts by the UN envoy to Yemen, "as long as they are in line with the Gulf initiative, its implementation mechanisms, the output of the Yemeni national dialogue and the UN Security Council Resolution 2216."
He also accused the Iran-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen of rejecting any political settlement to the Yemeni crisis, citing their absence at a recent UN-sponsored meeting for peace talks in Geneva.
Saeed al-Lawindi, a researcher at Cairo-based Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that the Houthis' absence at Geneva meeting is in favor of some Western states that seek to sustain the conflict so to secure their own interests.
"Some Western states benefit from the ongoing war in Yemen as they make arm deals with engaged states, particularly Saudi Arabia, and so the Houthis' appearance in Geneva conference would not be in their favor," al-Lawindi told Xinhua in an interview.
Yemen has been ravaged by a civil war since the Houthi rebels, who forced the internationally-recognized President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to exile, seized most of the Yemeni northern provinces in September 2014, including the capital Sanaa.
Since March 2015, an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been launching airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen in support of Hadi.
More than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, have been killed in the war and more than 3 million others displaced, according to UN reports.
