He is also set to meet with Omani Foreign Minister Alawi bin Abdullah before a meeting with other Gulf Cooperation Council foreign ministers from Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.
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For Houthi foes, the Saudi-backed exiled Yemeni government welcomed on Saturday the U.S. initiative, saying the government is prepared to deal positively with any peaceful initiatives resulting from the meeting in Jeddah that included the foreign secretaries of the U.S., Britain and Gulf states.
US Secretary of State John Kerry was holding talks with his Gulf counterparts and a British minister in Saudi Arabia on Thursday on the conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Libya.
The U.S. has provided logistical and intelligence support to a Saudi-led coalition of nine Arab countries in their bombing and ground offensive against Shiite Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen.
The attack also came as Saudi Arabia claimed that Iran, its regional rival, is supplying Houthis in Yemen with missiles.
Kerry’s trip comes amid growing pressure on the Obama administration to cut back its support to Saudi Arabia.
Kerry said the global response to Yemen’s civil war had fallen short of the region’s needs, and pledged a renewed political and security approach to resume talks.
But the final agreement, in broad outline, would initially include a “swift formation of a national unity government with power shared among the parties”.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March previous year after the rebels and their allies overran most of the country, prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.
Rebels continue to hold the capital Sanaa.
The US backed the Saudi war, and has been conducting refueling operations for the Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen, which have killed thousands of civilians over the past year and a half, and which are fueling increasing global condemnation.
This post was syndicated from The Guardian NigeriaThe Guardian Nigeria.
Kerry said Washington was “deeply troubled” by rebel attacks on Saudi territory, where more than 100 soldiers and civilians have been killed in cross-border bombardments and skirmishes. Human rights groups have argued that US forces may also be responsible under the rules of war for civilian casualties because of its support for the Saudi campaign.
Pic: ReutersGENEVA: The United Nations human rights office called on Thursday for more light to be shed on the Saudi-led coalition air strikes in Yemen and for violations including attacks on protected sites like hospitals to be punished.
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Yemen’s rebel-run news agency says airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition have killed 11 civilians and wounded others in the northern city of Saada, the Associated Press reports.
