GCC slams Houthi coup in Yemen

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Ministerial Council yesterday announced their support for Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi denouncing the Houthis’ actions in the capital Sanaa and describing the events in the country as a “coup against legitimacy”.

In a statement issued after an emergency meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the ministers demanded the Houthis “give back the official institutions they captured to the state, leave the presidential palace and set free the president’s chief of staff Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak.”

The statement condemned the Houthis’ terrorist acts and their supporters, stressing that the GCC countries will “take all necessary measures to protect Yemen’s security and stability.

The statement urged the Houthis to withdraw from the presidential palace, and the president’s and the prime minister’s houses, remove the checkpoints, and release the president’s chief of staff.

They added that if the Houthis meet these demands, a GCC envoy will be dispatched to meet with all the Yemeni political powers to discuss the implementation of the rest of the initiative.

The GCC Ministerial Council held an emergency meeting at Riyadh Air Base Airport chaired by Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah, Qatar’s Foreign Minister to discuss the latest developments in Yemen.

The meeting included the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. The Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdullah Al-Sayadi was scheduled to attend the meeting but he did not.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian government expressed its strong condemnation of all acts of violence and chaos in Yemen and those who support them.

The country’s Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammed Al-Momani said that the Jordanian government renews its support for Yemeni legitimacy and political process. “We hope that Yemen will resort to the language of reason and dialogue to resolve its problems,” the minister said in a statement.

Momani stressed that “violence and chaos will only lead to the destruction of the capabilities of the Yemeni people and the destruction of their future”.