Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

Major fighting in Yemen coming to an end, Saudi coalition spokesman says

RIYADH (Reuters) – The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition battling the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen has been quoted as saying major fighting in the country is drawing towards a close, one year after the military campaign began.

Fighting on two of the main battlefronts in Yemen, along the border with Saudi Arabia and in the city of Taiz, has calmed this month following mediation by local tribes and there have been secret talks in Saudi Arabia towards finding a resolution.

Saudi TV channel al-Arabiya quoted the spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, as saying on Thursday that “the major fighting in Yemen is nearing an end … (and) the next phase is a stage of restoring stability and reconstructing the country”.

Arabiya gave no further details and Asseri could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Saudi-led coalition began its military campaign a year ago with the aim of preventing the Houthi group and forces loyal to Yemen’s ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking control of the country. It also aims to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power in the capital Sanaa.

Asseri and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir have in recent days said that any peace talks can only take place between Hadi and the Houthis, and through the U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

Asseri announced last April that the coalition’s initial operation had ended, saying it had “neutralized most of the military capabilities of the Houthi militias and their allies that represented a threat to Yemen and neighboring countries”.

However, the fighting then intensified as the coalition added small numbers of ground troops to support Yemeni fighters, backed by an increasingly heavy air campaign.

The coalition retook Yemen’s second city, Aden, from the Houthis and Saleh’s forces in July, the northeastern town of Marib in September and the small northwestern port of Midi this year.

Bitter fighting in Taiz since the autumn calmed somewhat this month and a Houthi siege of the city ended. Near-daily attacks on Saudi border positions have gone on for months, killing hundreds of the kingdom’s soldiers and civilian residents of frontier regions.

More than 6,000 Yemenis, about half of them civilians, have been killed in the fighting and airstrikes over the past year, the United Nations says. Millions more have been displaced.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Saudi Arabia says it will punish anyone linked to Hezbollah

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it would punish anyone who belongs to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Shi’ite Islamist group Hezbollah, sympathizes with it, supports it financially or harbors any of its members.

An Interior Ministry statement carried by the state news agency SPA said that Saudis and expatriates would be subjected to “severe penalties” under the kingdom’s regulations and anti-terrorism laws. Foreigners would be deported, it said.

The move comes after Gulf Arab countries declared Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, raising the possibility of further sanctions against the group, which wields influence in Lebanon and fights alongside President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria.

“Any citizen or resident who supports, shows membership in the so-called Hezbollah, sympathises with it or promotes it, makes donations to it or communicates with it or harbours anyone belonging to it will be subject to the stiff punishments provided by the rules and orders, including the terrorism crimes and its financing,” the statement said.

Foreigners working and living in the oil-exporting kingdom would also face expulsion, it said.

Hezbollah has close ties to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s bitter rival for power in the region. Saudi Arabia supports Syrian opposition groups to topple Assad and blames Iran and Hezbollah for helping him cling to power after five years of civil war.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stepped up criticism of Saudi Arabia, accusing it of directing car bombings in Lebanon.

(Reporting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Larry King)

Saudi Arabia, Houthis swap prisoners, raising hopes of Yemen peace talks

CAIRO/RIYADH (Reuters) – A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it had exchanged prisoners with its Houthi opponents and also welcomed a pause in combat on the border, prompting hopes of a push to end the year-long war that has killed some 6,000 people.

Riyadh’s confirmation of a rare confidence-building measure in the conflict came a day after senior Yemeni officials said a delegation from the Houthis, who are allies of the kingdom’s arch foe Iran, was in Saudi Arabia for talks to end the war.

However, both the Saudi Arabian and Yemeni foreign ministers later said any formal negotiations to end the fighting could only take place under the auspices of the United Nations and must include Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Riyadh and a coalition of Arab states entered Yemen’s civil war a year ago in an attempt to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh ousted him from power.

The Saudi state news agency SPA said Yemeni tribal mediators had facilitated the exchange of a Saudi lieutenant captured by the Houthis for seven Yemeni prisoners held in the kingdom.

The agency gave no further details, but some Yemeni media have reported that the exchange happened on the border between the two countries earlier this week.

Quoting a Saudi statement, SPA also said: “The leadership of the coalition forces welcomed the continuation of a state of calm along the border … which contributes to arriving at a political solution.”

After meeting his Gulf Arab and Yemeni counterparts, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said he backed U.N. special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed’s efforts to resolve the crisis based on U.N. resolution 2216, which calls on the Houthis to return power to Hadi’s government.

However, he added in a news conference that the lull was important to deliver aid and medical supplies to people in northern regions of Yemen.

Saleh’s General People’s Congress party said in a statement it supported any efforts to bring peace to Yemen.

HOUTHIS SNUB IRAN

Yemen’s conflict has fallen into a stalemate, in which the Houthis still control the capital Sanaa and other major cities in central Yemen, while its guerrilla forces have shelled and harassed Saudi forces along the rugged northern frontier.

In what could be a goodwill message to Saudi Arabia, a senior Houthi official sought to distance his group from Riyadh’s main regional foe Tehran, telling Iranian officials in a Facebook posting to stay out of Yemen’s conflict.

“Officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran must be silent and leave aside the exploitation of the Yemen file,” said Yousef al-Feshi, a member of the Revolutionary Committee which runs areas of Yemen held by the Houthis.

Asked about the posting, Jubeir said he had not seen it but that it appeared to be a “positive” statement.

Sunni power Saudi Arabia has long accused Shi’ite Iran of trying to expand its influence in Yemen by helping the Houthis, who hail from the Zaydi branch of Shi’ite Islam.

The comments by Feshi, who is seen as close to the Houthis’ overall leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, were the first snub by the group to Iran, long seen as its main supporter.

On Tuesday, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, suggested that Tehran could send military advisers to help the Houthis in Yemen just as it has done in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The coalition spokesman, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asseri, said Yemeni tribal chiefs had asked for a period of calm to let humanitarian supplies pass through but he declined to be drawn into commenting on the reported visit by a Houthi delegation.

“It is too early to focus on those who are carrying out this role,” Asseri told the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV. “Let’s focus on the result, that there be benefit to our brothers who are affected by what the Houthi militias are carrying out. We do not want to talk about individuals.”

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdelmalek al-Mekhlafi said the talks in Saudi Arabia were “on the intelligence level about prisoners and other issues”, adding that peace talks could only happen in accordance with the U.N. resolution.

“This is the only way forward with political negotiations. Anything else is operational and not political,” Mekhlafi said after the meeting with his Gulf Arab counterparts in Riyadh.

(Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy and Noah Browning in Dubai, Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Yemen’s Houthis in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending war

CAIRO/DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran-allied Houthis and their Saudi foes have begun talks to try to end Yemen’s war, two officials said, in what appears their most serious bid to close a theater of Saudi-Iranian rivalry deepening political tumult across the Middle East.

A delegation from Yemen’s Houthi movement is in neighboring Saudi Arabia, they said, in the first visit of its kind since the war began last year between Houthi forces and an Arab military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, a foe of Tehran.

The reported talks coincide with an apparent lull in fighting on the Saudi-Yemen border and in Saudi-led Arab coalition air strikes on the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa.

Underlining the regional rifts, a senior Iranian military official meanwhile signaled that Iran could yet send military advisers to Yemen to help the Houthis.

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, suggested Iran could support the Houthis in a similar way it has backed President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria, in an interview with the Tasnim news agency.

Asked if Iran would send military advisers to Yemen, as it had in Syria, Jazayeri said: “The Islamic Republic … feels its duty to help the people of Yemen in any way it can, and to any level necessary.”

Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of backing Yemen’s armed Houthi movement, which drove the internationally-recognized government into exile, triggering a Gulf intervention in March.

SIX THOUSAND KILLED

The United Nations says nearly 6,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s fighting. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

The two senior officials from the administrative body that runs parts of Yemen controlled by the Houthis said the Houthi visit to Saudi Arabia began on Monday at the invitation of Saudi authorities, following a week of secret preparatory talks.

The Houthi delegation in Saudi Arabia is headed by Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the Houthis’ main spokesman and a senior adviser to Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the officials said. Abdel-Salam previously led Houthi delegates in talks in Oman that paved the way for U.N.-sponsored talks in Switzerland last year.

A spokesman for the Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power could not immediately be reached for comment. A Saudi foreign ministry spokesman could also not be reached.

Like Syria, Yemen is contested turf in Shi’ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia’s power struggle across the Middle East, which has played out along largely sectarian lines.

Tehran views the Houthis as the legitimate authority in Yemen but denies providing any material support to them. The Houthis say they are a fighting a revolution against a corrupt government and its Gulf Arab backers.

(Additional reporting by Sami Aboudi, Yara Bayoumy, Editing by William Maclean and Ralph Boulton)

Coalition discussed Syria ground incursion, Saudi official says

ANKARA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Defense ministers from the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State militant group discussed the possibility of a Syrian ground incursion two weeks ago but they have not made a decision, an aide to Saudi Arabia’s defense minister said on Monday.

“It was discussed two weeks ago in Brussels,” Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said in a telephone interview from Riyadh. “It was discussed at the political level but it wasn’t discussed as a military mission,” he said.

“Once this is organized, and decided how many troops and how they will go and where they will go, we will participate in that,” he said. “We need to discuss at the military level very extensively with the military experts to make sure that we have a plan.”

Asseri also said the kingdom was now ready to strike Islamic State from Turkey’s southern Incirlik air base, where four Saudi fighter jets arrived last week. The jets have not yet participated in any attacks, he added.

The U.S. State Department said the Saudis had previously talked about the possibility of introducing ground forces in Syria to fight Islamic State, but there were many issues that needed to be discussed about a potential incursion.

Deploying ground forces would be a major escalation for the 66-member U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, which has so far relied mainly on air strikes and arming and equipping moderate Syrian opposition groups.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing in Washington that the Saudis had talked about “the potential of an introduction of some sort of ground force element in Syria” and that the United States would welcome such a contribution in the fight against Islamic State.

“But there’s a lot that needs to be discussed in terms of what they would do, what their makeup would be, how they would need to be supported by the coalition going forward. So there’s a lot of homework that needs to be done,” Kirby said.

A U.S. defense official said supporting indigenous anti-Islamic State forces on the ground was a key component of the U.S. strategy against the group.

“We will continue to provide equipment packages to vetted leaders and their units so that over time they can make a concerted push into territory still controlled” by Islamic State, the official said.

“As a matter of policy, we won’t comment or speculate on potential future operations,” the official added.

(Writing by Humeyra Pamuk and Mohammad Zargham; Editing by David Dolan and Lisa Shumaker)

OPEC veteran urges oil output cut, frets about global glut

DOHA (Reuters) – OPEC and non-OPEC producers should cut production to balance the global oil market before a supply glut becomes unmanageable “like a cancer”, Qatar’s former oil minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said.

Attiyah, influential in OPEC as Qatar’s energy minister from 1992 to 2011, said a deal announced in Doha last week by Saudi Arabia and Russia to freeze production at January levels was not enough to balance the market as an oversupply continues to grow.

“If they want to balance the market the solution will be easy. Don’t go slow. If you do, then every time the market will create a glut. Cut 2.5 million barrels and then you will balance the market in a few years,” Attiyah, who says he is talking to producers in and outside of OPEC, told Reuters.

“I will ask every producer, do you want quantity or price? They say they want a reasonable price but to reach that there has to be sacrifice. If you do not sacrifice the other will not sacrifice,” he said in an interview in Doha on Monday.

“The oversupply has grown from 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) to 3 million bpd today. I am very worried about oversupply. It is like a cancer. If you did not deal with it quickly, it would spread.”

Oil has slid around 70 percent from more than $100 a barrel in mid-2014, pressured by excess supply and a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to abandon its traditional role of cutting production alone to boost prices.

Attiyah spoke before Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Tuesday he was confident more nations would join a pact to freeze output at existing levels in talks expected next month, but effectively ruled out production cuts by major crude producers anytime soon.

Addressing the annual IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston, Naimi told energy executives that growing support for the freeze and stronger demand should over time ease the glut that has pushed oil prices to their lowest levels in more than a decade.

Traders have been skeptical about whether freezing production near record levels will support the market.

Attiyah, a leading architect of Qatar’s rise to global prominence as gas exporter, said OPEC would not cut production alone but added that Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter and defacto leader of OPEC, was willing to cooperate with other producers to balance the market.

“Saudi Arabia needs a commitment from everyone. The Saudis will be big supporters — but others have to join in,” he said.

“OPEC will never do it alone. No way OPEC will do it alone: 100 percent.”

One stumbling block in attempts to forge a wider agreement is Iran, which is increasing output following the lifting of Western sanctions in January and whose oil minister was quoted on Tuesday as calling the deal “laughable”.

(Editing by Susan Thomas)

Snyder: Middle East developments put world at risk of WWIII

Recent developments in the Middle East have placed the world dangerously close to an event that could potentially ignite another world war, Michael Snyder said on Thursday morning.

Snyder made the comments during a taping of The Jim Bakker Show.

He was referring to a potential ground invasion of Syria, which he wrote about earlier this week on his blog “The Economic Collapse.” Snyder’s post cited a Saudi Arabia state media report that stated 20 nations would participate in a “military exercise” in the northern part of kingdom.

The Saudi Press Agency said the exercise would include troops, fighter jets, artillery, tanks, naval forces, and air defense systems, according to the announcement. The agency called it “the largest and most important military maneuver in the history of the region” and said it showed the 20 nations “stand united to face all challenges and to maintain peace and stability in the region.”

Snyder, though, noted in his post that “military exercises” are sometimes used as an excuse if governments are planning to prepare for a ground invasion. He argued that Saudi Arabia and Turkey could both benefit from invading Syria, though noted an invasion may lead to backlash from Russia and other nations with conflicting interests in Syria’s nearly five-year civil war.

“We could literally be looking at the spark that sets off World War 3,” he wrote.

Snyder went into more detail about the political, religious and economic sides of the conflict in Syria and the potential fallout of any ground invasion during Thursday morning’s taping.

“With interlocking relationships and alliances, they could draw in the entire world eventually — including the United States,” he said.

The show is scheduled to air on Feb. 23, but viewers can get exclusive early access through the PTL Television Network on Roku or the Video on Demand section of jimbakkershow.com.

The United Nations says 250,000 people have been killed and another 12 million are currently displaced as a result of the Syrian violence. The nation is the world’s largest source of refugees.

At a meeting last week, the International Syria Support Group agreed to try to implement a “nationwide cessation of hostilities” in Syria by this Friday. But violence and airstrikes have continued this week, and a medical charity known as Doctors Without Borders said at least 25 doctors and patients were killed on Monday when missiles targeted a hospital in Idlib Province.

During Thursday’s taping, Pastor Zach Drew asked Snyder if people should expect to see an invasion within the next 18 days, a reference to the reported length of the military exercise.

“We’re certainly in the danger zone, Zach, because this unprecedented military force has gathered right now,” Snyder replied. “If we get past a few weeks, well then, presumably, they would start to go home and go back to their countries. But they’re gathered right now in northern Saudi Arabia. It’s a real, real potential.”

During the taping, Pastor Jim Bakker said headlines from around the world are “crying out” that a world war could start in a matter of weeks or days, yet they were being largely ignored.

“We are in a moment where suddenly things will happen, and we’re not going to be able to do anything about it,” Pastor Bakker said. “Most people are not prepared for the world to come apart. We’re not prepared at all.”

Saudis and Russia agree to oil output freeze, Iran still an obstacle

DOHA (Reuters) – Top oil exporters Russia and Saudi Arabia agreed on Tuesday to freeze output levels but said the deal was contingent on other producers joining in – a major sticking point with Iran absent from the talks and determined to raise production.

The Saudi, Russian, Qatari and Venezuelan oil ministers announced the proposal after a previously undisclosed meeting in Doha. It could become the first joint OPEC and non-OPEC deal in 15 years, aimed at tackling a growing oversupply of crude and helping prices recover from their lowest in over a decade.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said freezing production at January levels – near record highs – was an adequate measure and he hoped other producers would adopt the plan. Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said more talks would take place with Iran and Iraq on Wednesday in Tehran.

“The reason we agreed to a potential freeze of production is simple: it is the beginning of a process which we will assess in the next few months and decide if we need other steps to stabilize and improve the market,” Naimi told reporters.

“We don’t want significant gyrations in prices, we don’t want reduction in supply, we want to meet demand, we want a stable oil price. We have to take a step at a time,” he said.

Oil prices jumped to $35.55 per barrel after the news about the secret meeting but later pared gains to trade near $33 on concerns that Iran may reject the deal and that even if Tehran agreed it would not help ease the growing global glut.

OPEC member Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional arch rival, has pledged to steeply increase output in the coming months as it looks to regain market share lost after years of international sanctions, which were lifted in January following a deal with world powers over its nuclear program.

“Our situation is totally different to those countries that have been producing at high levels for the past few years,” a senior source familiar with Iran’s thinking told Reuters.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh also indicated Tehran would not agree to freezing its output at January levels, saying the country would not give up its appropriate share of the global oil market.

SPECIAL TERMS

The fact that output from OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia – the world’s two top producers and exporters – is near record highs complicates any agreement since Iran is producing at least 1 million barrels per day below its capacity and pre-sanctions levels.

However, two non-Iranian sources close to OPEC discussions told Reuters that Iran may be offered special terms as part of the output freeze deal. “Iran is returning to the market and needs to be given a special chance but it also needs to make some calculations,” said one source.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said freezing output was not a problem for his country as he anyway expected its production to be flat this year versus 2015.

An Iraqi oil ministry source said Baghdad was also happy to freeze production if all parties agreed.

“The agreement (if successful) should support oil prices but there are reasons to be cautious. Not all OPEC members have signed up to the deal – notably Iran and Iraq. History would also suggest that compliance may be an issue,” said Capital Economics’ analyst Jason Tuvey.

OPEC has been quarrelling for decades over output levels and Russia, which last agreed to cooperate with OPEC back in 2001, never followed through on its pledge and raised exports instead.

Also complicating any potential agreement is the geo-political rivalry in the Middle East between Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are fighting proxy conflicts with Russia and Iran in the region, including in Syria and Yemen.

In Syria’s five-year-old civil war, Riyadh politically and financially backs some rebel groups battling President Bashar al-Assad’s government, which has gained the upper hand with the help of Russian warplanes and Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias.

RUSSIAN BUDGET

The Doha meeting came after more than 18 months of declining oil prices, knocking crude below $30 a barrel for the first time in over a decade from as high as $115 a barrel in mid-2014.

The slump was triggered by booming U.S. shale oil output and a decision by Saudi Arabia and its OPEC Gulf allies to raise production to fight for market share and drive higher-cost production out of the market.

But although U.S. output has begun to decline and global demand has been robust it has still not been enough to offset booming global production which has led to oil stockpiles rising to record levels.

Saudi Arabia has long insisted it would reduce supply only if other OPEC and non-OPEC members agreed, but Russia – the world’s biggest oil producer and No.2 exporter – has said it would not join in as its Siberian fields were different from those of OPEC.

The mood began to change in January as oil prices fell below $30 per barrel.

While Venezuela has been the hardest-hit producer, current oil prices are a fraction of what Russia needs to balance its budget as it heads towards parliamentary elections this year. Saudi finances are also suffering badly, running a $98 billion budget deficit last year, which it seeks to trim this year.

But while talking about potential cooperation with OPEC, Russia raised its output to a new record high in January. For a table on OPEC and Russian output, click here

“Even if they do freeze production at January levels, you have still got global inventory builds which are going to weigh on prices. So whilst it’s a positive step, I don’t think it will have a huge impact on supply/demand balances, simply because we were oversupplied in January anyway,” said Energy Aspects’ analyst Dominic Haywood.

(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler, Reem Shamseddine, Ahmad Ghaddar and Amanda Cooper; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson and Pravin Char)

Saudi Arabia warns against ‘nefarious activities’ by Iran

RIYADH (Reuters) – The lifting of sanctions on Iran as a result of its nuclear deal with world powers will be a harmful development if it uses the extra money to fund “nefarious activities”, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters on Tuesday.

Asked in an exclusive interview if Saudi Arabia had discussed seeking a nuclear bomb in the event Iran managed to obtain one despite its atomic deal, he said Saudi Arabia would do “whatever we need to do in order to protect our people”.

“I don’t think it would be logical to expect us to discuss any such issue in public and I don’t think it would be reasonable to expect me to answer this question one way or another,” he said.

Jubeir’s comments were the first to directly address the lifting of sanctions on Iran, Riyadh’s bitterest regional rival, although Saudi Arabia has previously welcomed Iran’s nuclear deal so long as it included a tough inspections regime.

But in private, officials have voiced concern that the deal would allow Iran greater scope to back militias and other allies across the region thanks to the extra funds it can access after sanctions are lifted and because of the reduced diplomatic pressure.

“It depends on where these funds go. If they go to support the nefarious activities of the Iranian regime, this will be a negative and it will generate a pushback. If they go towards improving the living standards of the Iranian people then it will be something that would be welcome,” Jubeir said.

Saudi officials have also in recent years voiced fears that their most powerful ally, the United States, is disengaging with the Middle East, something some of them have said may have contributed to Syria’s descent into civil war.

Jubeir said he did not believe Washington was retreating from the region, but emphasized that the world looked to it as the sole superpower to provide stability.

“If an American decline were to happen or an American withdrawal were to happen, the concern that everybody has is that it would leave a void, and whenever you have a void, or a vacuum, evil forces flow,” Jubeir said.

SECTARIAN TENSIONS

Riyadh accuses Tehran of fomenting instability across the region and the two back opposing sides in wars in Syria and Yemen and political tussles in Iraq, Lebanon and Bahrain.

Last year Saudi Arabia began a military campaign in Yemen to stop an Iranian ally from gaining power. The two rival powers accuse each other of supporting terrorism, detribalizing the region and inflaming sectarian hatred.

Jubeir said Iran’s support for Shi’ite Muslim militias across the region was the main source of sectarian ill will, but acknowledged that this had produced what he described as “a counter reaction in the Sunni world”.

Asked about inflammatory rhetoric from Saudi Sunni clerics, Jubeir said he could not comment on remarks he had not seen, but said the government encouraged dialogue and inclusion and discouraged extreme or disparaging language.

The state-appointed Imam of Mecca’s Grand Mosque this week wrote a Tweet alleging an “alliance of the Safavids with the Jews and Christians against Muslims”, using a sectarian-tinged term often used to describe Iranians or Shi’ites.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Janet Lawrence)

Yemen peace talks postponed, U.N. says

GENEVA (Reuters) – A round of United Nations-brokered Yemen peace talks will not begin on Jan. 14 as planned but may take place a week or more later, U.N. spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies has been fighting the Shi’ite Houthi movement, which controls the capital, since March of last year. Nearly 6,000 people are known to have died.

The warring parties agreed last month on a broad framework for ending their war but a temporary truce was widely violated and has since ended.

Last week, former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has joined forces with the Houthis, said he would not negotiate with the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, throwing into doubt the fate of the peace talks.

After the December round of talks, U.N. Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said he would bring the two sides together again on Jan. 14, with Switzerland and Ethiopia both mentioned as possible locations.

But a meeting this week is no longer on the table.

“He is looking at a date after Jan 20,” Fawzi said. “It’s taking him some time to get the parties to agree on a location.”

“He wants to go for a location in the region. So his first option is to find a location acceptable to all parties in the region, but he has Switzerland of course in the back of his mind as an option.”

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Tom Heneghan)