RIYADH, Oct 29 (KUNA) -- Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of Staff of the member states of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen held a meeting in Riyadh Sunday.
The meeting was chaired by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and Chief of Staff General Abdul Rahman Bin Saleh Al-Banyan.
Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed Khaled Al-Khudor attended the meeting.
The war initiated by the militia of the Houthis and ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh undermined Yemen's stability, Al-Jubeir said as the meeting opened.
Both have committed crimes against the Yemeni people and attacked Yemen's neighbors, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, as well as continuously threatened security of the region at large, he added.
Their conduct has stolen people's will, and dictated a military choice through continued violations and hostilities.
Al-Jubeir accused the militia of "violating childhood, and causing poverty, hunger and disease, besides depriving about 4.5 million child of education, and recruiting some 1,000 children to fight on their side." They have also targeted cities and civilians, devastated property and planted land mines, which led to human massacres. They have targeted Makkah and the Great Mosque, provoking Muslims' feelings around the globe, he said.
Moreover, the Houthi and Saleh Militia have attacked 65 vessels, 124 relief convoys, and more than 600 aid shipments, the Saudi chief diplomat added.
These facts and crimes have augmented the coalition's determination to save Yemen and "dry off sources of evil and terrorism there" Al-Jubeir said.
Saleh and the Houthi militia would have never carried on with their practices without support from the world's "chief sponsor of terrorism, namely the Iranian regime" which have smuggled weaponry to both, in an overt violation of international resolutions, as well as undermining efforts to conclude a solution to the crisis, he noted.
Al-Jubeir reiterated the Kingdom's hard work to maintain security and stability of the region, backing the international endeavors led by the UN envoy for Yemen to reach a solution based on the UNSC resolution 2216, the GCC Initiative and the outcome of the national dialogue in the country.
Thanks to the operations by the coalition, legitimacy has recovered up to 80 percent of the Yemeni territories, Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdulmalik Al-Mekhlafi told the meeting.
The major achievement of the coalition was halting the fall of the state in Yemen, he stressed.
The message of the Yemeni legitimate government and the coalition was that of peace, and: "we have made concessions" for this purpose.
Also attending the meeting were foreign ministers and chiefs of staff from the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Sudan, Senegal, Morocco, Malaysia and Yemen, as well as heads of international and humanitarian organizations and ambassadors. (end) mdm.msa