ARAB AND WORLD
Tue 26 Sep 2023 8:16 pm - Jerusalem Time
Riyadh and the United Nations condemn attack on Saudi border with Yemen
Riyadh and the United Nations on Tuesday condemned the attack that led to the killing of two Bahraini soldiers on the Saudi border with Yemen.
Manama announced on Monday that a Bahraini officer and soldier were killed in an attack launched by Houthi drones.
The Kingdom of Bahrain, which neighbors Saudi Arabia, has been a member of the military coalition led by Riyadh since 2015 in support of the Yemeni government against the Houthi rebels supported by Iran.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s condemnation and denunciation of the treacherous attack on the defense force of the sister Kingdom of Bahrain,” the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Tuesday.
In a statement on Tuesday, the US Embassy in Riyadh accused the Houthis of being behind the attack, describing it as "unacceptable" and "threatening the longest period of calm since the start of the war in Yemen."
Yemen, which is the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula and which was devastated by years of war, has witnessed relative calm since the truce entered into force in April 2022 under the auspices of the United Nations, although it was not officially extended when its term expired in October of the year. the past.
The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, condemned the attack, saying on Tuesday, "The continued outbreak of fighting demonstrates the fragility of the situation in Yemen."
He added, "Any renewed offensive military escalation could drag Yemen back into a cycle of violence and undermine ongoing peace efforts."
He continued, "We communicated with everyone to urge them to exercise the utmost restraint at this critical time, and to use dialogue to resolve differences and reduce military tensions."
The Saudi authorities did not identify the perpetrators of this attack, which came a few days after discussions in Riyadh with Houthi officials, which both parties described as “positive.”
Likewise, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, headquartered in Jeddah, condemned the “Houthi drone attack.”
The organization's Secretary-General, Hussein Ibrahim Taha, stressed that "such provocative actions are not consistent with the positive efforts being made to end the crisis in Yemen."
The Houthis did not comment on the attack.
The conflict in Yemen has caused the death and injury of hundreds of thousands and the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations.
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Riyadh and the United Nations condemn attack on Saudi border with Yemen