Houthi rebels offer to end all attacks on Saudi Arabia

The UN has welcomed a proposal from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels to end all attacks on Saudi Arabia as part of a peace initiative.

A statement said the proposal could send “a powerful message of the will to end the war”.

The offer comes a week after drone and missile strikes hit Saudi Arabian oil facilities.

Houthi rebels have claimed to have carried out the attack, but the US and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran.

Tehran denies any involvement in the strikes.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir on Saturday said the weapons used were Iranian and vowed to release their full findings.

Speaking to reporters in Riyadh, Jubeir said his government was in consultation with allies and would take “necessary measures” after its investigation was complete, without giving details of possible actions.

“The kingdom calls upon the international community to assume its responsibility in condemning those that stand behind this act, and to take a firm and clear position against this reckless behaviour that threatens the global economy,” he said.

Officials on Friday announced a moderate deployment of US troops to Saudi Arabia, to help boost its missile and air defences.

But the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Iran, Maj Gen Hossein Salami, warned on Saturday that the country’s “readiness to respond to any aggression is definitive”.

“Be careful, a limited aggression won’t remain limited. We’ll pursue any aggressor,” he said at the opening of an exhibition of captured drones in the capital, Tehran. “We’ll continue until the full destruction of any aggressor.”

 

Via BBC/Al Jazeera/ DW