Saudi air strikes continue to target northern Yemen as the Sana’a government says it would reconsider ceasefire with the fighters should they comply with its demands.

The Yemen Hezbollah Movement Houthi fighters said Tuesday that Saudi warplanes carried out almost a dozen air raids in northern villages.

According to the resistance fighters, Saudi forces fired dozens of rockets and artillery shells from the border region of Al-Jabiri, which was returned to Riyadh after the fighters initiated a ceasefire with the Kingdom two weeks ago.

Riyadh, however, continued its offensives alongside with the Yemeni government, which also rejected the Houthis’ peace offer, highlighting their sixth condition for a Yemen Hezbollah Movement Houthi pledge not to attack Saudi Arabia.

Yemen’s five conditions for a ceasefire included removing checkpoints, ending banditry, handing over all military equipment and weapons, and releasing civilians and military personnel.

The fighters offered last week to accept the truce on the condition that the government halts its military attacks on the northern areas.

Yemen’s defense ministry however said it would stop its war on the Yemen Hezbollah Movement Houthis only if they would comply with the government’s sixth condition.

Riyadh joined Yemen’s offensive against the Yemen Hezbollah Movement Houthis after accusing them of killing a Saudi border guard and occupying two border villages on November 3. Saudi jets began bombing Yemen’s northern villages the following day.

Yemen Hezbollah Movement Houthis reject the Saudi allegations and insist that they defended themselves against Saudi incursions into northern Yemen in collaboration with the Yemeni military offensive on the north.

The Red Cross says humanitarian conditions in Yemen are at their worst after five months of fighting between Saudi forces and the Houthi fighters.

The Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday that the war in northern Yemen has dramatically worsened the fate of civilians in the area.

In a statement ahead of an international conference on Yemen in London this week, the body’s deputy director of operations said ICRC workers are struggling to reach Yemenis in need of help.

The Red Cross also re-issued a warning that Yemen is facing a humanitarian crisis that will hamper its long-term development.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and nearly 200,000 have been displaced in the ongoing war in northern Yemen.

A predominantly Shia region, Sa’ada Province in northern Yemen borders the southwestern Saudi Arabian provinces of Asir, Jizan and Najiran. The area has been the target of Yemeni government and Saudi airstrikes and bombardments.

Houthi fighters charge that Saudi Arabia has provided the Yemeni army with military equipment and encouraged the government to destroy Houthi positions in the north.

They also accused Riyadh of targeting civilian areas far from the Saudi-Yemeni border.

Saudi Arabia joined the war in November 2009 — three months after the Yemeni government intensified the fight against the Houthis.

Sana’a accuses the Shia fighters of breaching terms of a ceasefire agreement by taking foreign visitors hostage in 2009 — a charge the Houthis deny.

Yemen, Britain, and the United States have discussed preparations for the upcoming London conference on extremism in Yemen.

Representatives of 21 countries plan to participate in the January 28 conference, called by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

On Saturday in Sana’a, Yemen’s Undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, Mohi al-Deen al-Dhabi, held separate meetings with US Ambassador Stephen Seche and British Ambassador Tim Torlot.

They discussed the outcome of Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi’s visit to the US, ties between Yemen and their countries, and ways to enhance them. No other details of the meetings were given.

In another meeting in Sana’a on the same day, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh that Egypt would provide Yemen “political, economic, and security support” at the London conference.

Torlot said on Wednesday that no financial assistance will be offered to the Yemeni government at the London conference, which he stated will analyze challenges the Yemeni government is facing and discuss ways to help Yemen tackle extremism.

Brown has been trying to convince Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states to attend the conference.

A high-level Yemeni delegation will attend the conference, despite concerns that the local wing of Al-Qaeda is planning a wave of attacks in the troubled south ahead of the conference, Yemeni officials and state media said on Saturday.

Houthi fighters in Yemen claim to have parried incursions by the army into their strongholds in the north, forcing government troops to retreat with their tanks ablaze.

The Houthis said they repelled the Yemeni soldiers who stormed their position on Thursday in the border village of al-Jabiri, 966 kilometers (600 miles) from the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Four army tanks were destroyed in fierce clashes, the Houthis said, adding that they repelled another government advance in the northern Kataf district.

Yemen has maintained the bombardment of the northern city of Sa’ada, prompting a response from Houthi fighters who in retaliation attacked the city’s military command center.

Officials in Sana’a had no comment on the latest clashes.

Meanwhile, Saudi attacks in the north continued with more than a dozen airstrikes conducted by the Royal Saudi Air Force targeting civilian areas, the Houthis said.

Saudi Arabia has been pounding northern Yemen for months as part of a joint campaign with Sana’a against the Houthi fighters. The fighting has been costly for Riyadh, Houthis said.

Saudi Maj. Gen. Ali Zaid Al-Khawalji said the army has tasked units with retrieving the bodies of slain Saudi soldiers.

He said a number of Saudi troops — a lieutenant colonel who was a veteran of the first war in the Persian Gulf — had been killed in clashes with Houthi fighters in the area last week.

Saudi intervention, which began in November, has left at least 113 troops killed and hundreds of others wounded.

Houthis accuse Riyadh of targeting civilian areas far from the Saudi-Yemeni border. They say the attacks have so far left scores of civilians killed and thousands of others displaced.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has ordered the suspension of direct flights from Yemen to the UK until stronger security measures are establish.

“We have agreed with Yemenia airlines — pending enhanced security — that they suspend their direct flights to the UK from Yemen with immediate effect,” Brown said in a statement on counter-terrorism to the House of Commons.

“We are working closely with the Yemeni government to agree what security measures need to be put in place before flights are resumed. Aviation security officials are in Sana’a at present looking at this,” he added.

The US and its Western allies allege that “a branch of al-Qaeda” is active in Yemen, pressing the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh to crack down on the militants.

Under such a pretext the United States has already deployed special forces in the country — a move that suggests another US military occupation in the region is in the offing.

This is while a senior Yemeni official has warned that any military intervention by the United States will not go as planned and quite to the contrary would make the terrorist network stronger.

“Any intervention or direct [military] action by the United States could strengthen the al-Qaeda network and not weaken it,” Rashed Al-Alimi, Yemen’s deputy prime minister for defense and security affairs, said earlier in January.

Saudi fighter jets keep bombing Houthi positions in northern Yemen along the border the country shares with the oil-rich kingdom, killing more than a dozen people.

According to a statement released by the fighters on Monday, Saudi forces carried out 17 aerial attacks on Dammaj, destroying a mosque in the northern region.

The warplanes also bombarded Muhazat, Wadi’a, Sha’af, Jebel Razih, al-Malaheet districts as well as the rugged villages in close proximity to the border regions of northern Yemen.

Several homes were demolished while more than a dozen died in the strikes, the statement added.

During the operation, Saudi forces reportedly fired some 450 rockets against the beleaguered areas of Jebel al-Dukhan, Jebel al-Madood, Marwi, Shada, Qamamat, al-Safih as well as al-Jabiri, some 600 miles (966 kilometers) from the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana’a and the Houthi fighters. It intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched ‘Operation Scorched Earth’ in an attempt to crush the fighters in the northern province of Sa’ada.

The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of violating of their civil liberties, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.

Saudi forces began fighting with Yemeni Shia resistance fighters, known as Houthis, and bombing their positions on November 4th after accusing the fighters of killing Saudi border guards.

Houthi fighters say that Saudi forces continually strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, the Saudis use banned toxic materials, including white phosphorus bombs, indiscriminately in northern Yemen.

The US military also has been involved in bombing Yemen’s northern regions of Amran, Hajjah and Sa’ada, according to Houthi fighters.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that since 2004, up to 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa’ada and take refuge at overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says the US, Britain, and Israel are implementing a plan to turn Yemen into another Afghanistan.

Addressing a group of students at Imam Sadeq University in Tehran on Monday, Mottaki said the three countries want to make Yemen the fourth Muslim country to be attacked after Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Mottaki added that the invasion and occupation of Yemen are going to be carried out under the pretext of the campaign against terrorism and Al-Qaeda.

Earlier this month, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama agreed to fight what they called terrorism in Yemen and Somalia.

The UK and the US decided to fund a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle the alleged threat from the country.

The US has been deeply involved in the war in Yemen, sending its special forces to train the Yemeni military and conducting air raids in both the northern and southern parts of the country.

The Iranian foreign minister called on the Yemeni government and regional countries to help resolve the “tragic” situation of the poor country.

Mottaki said the United States invaded Afghanistan eight years ago under the pretext of fighting extremism and drug production in the war-torn country.

But the war has brought nothing but insecurity and extremism, he noted.

Mottaki said drug production has also dramatically risen in Afghanistan as a result of the military intervention.

A US congressman has announced his plans to reintroduce the Stop Terrorists Entry Program (STEP) Act into Congress, which calls for the deportation of most Iranians without permanent resident status.

The STEP Act, a bill that was originally presented in 2003, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to bar citizens of Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the United States.

Rep. J. Gresham Barrett says he is reintroducing the STEP Act in response to the Fort Hood shooting, carried out by a US citizen, and the Christmas Day attempt to blow up an airplane over Detroit, attempted by a Nigerian national.

If passed, the bill would deport all Iranians on student visas, temporary work visas, exchange visas, and tourist visas from the United States within 60 days.

It would also make it illegal for Iranians to travel to the United States, though some exceptions could be made after “extensive federal screening.”

A group of Israeli ‘experts’ visit Yemen at a time when the Arab country is rife with foreign military intervention.

Five Israeli “agriculture experts” were in Yemen last week to help the country’s farmers, Israel’s Arutz Sheva newspaper reported on Sunday.

Tel Aviv says the experts’ trip has nothing to do with the conflict in Northern Yemen.

During an agricultural show exposition in the Netherlands several months ago, the government of Yemen invited the Israelis to visit the country, the report said.

Despite the fact that Sana’a and Tel Aviv have no diplomatic ties, the experts entered Yemen using their Israeli passports.

The development comes as Saudi Arabia and the US have lent military support to Yemen’s government in its crackdown against the Muslim fighters in the North of the country.

Riadh Hussain al-Qazi, the Head of the Yemeni Opposition Movement told Iran’s al-Alam Arabic TV news channel that Yemen’s crackdown against its Shia population in the north has been designed by Saudi Arabia and the Zionist lobby in the US.

Head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas Khaled Mashaal met with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in Damascus on Saturday and discussed Palestinian national reconciliation process and efforts have been made in this regard.

Assad reaffirmed his concern for Palestinian reconciliation, asserting that he will support any effort that will lead to an agreement between Palestinian factions, Syria’s Presidential office announced in a statement.

The Syrian President reiterated that Palestinian unity would be the only way to restore Palestinian rights and face the challenges they are confronted with, the statement added.

They also tackle the latest developments in the Palestinian territories as well as critical situation of the Gazans.

Khaled Mashaal, for his part, appreciated efforts made by Assad and Syrian government in helping Palestinian nation and strengthening unity of them.

After the meeting Hamas official Izzat Ar-Rashq told reporters that Assad and Mashaal also talked about continuous Israeli assaults, settlement activity, plans to Judaize al-Qods and divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The meeting held between the Hamas delegation and Syrian officials was undertaken as part of a tour of Arab and Muslim countries, Ar-Rashq said.

The Hamas delegation has also visited Yemen, Libya, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.

Yemen says it needs intelligence and logistical support from the West in its “battle against terrorism”, however it will not agree with any joint military operation with the Americans in the country.

Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said that US forces were currently in Yemen training the country’s counterterrorism forces and Sana’a would accept more American soldiers if they only acted as trainers.

Qirbi told AP that Yemen welcomes US and foreign troops for training, intelligence and logistical support “But not in any other capacity.”

He said Yemeni forces would remain under Yemeni command hinting that the government will not allow the US to supervise Yemeni troops’ operations in the country.

Yemen claims that several hundred al-Qaeda fighters are operating in the country.

It announced the beginning of its biggest offensive in years against “al-Qaeda hideouts” last month and has beefed up troops around Sana’a and some other provinces.

The US, however, has launched air raids in northern parts of the country, where Shia fighters, who are traditionally considered opponents of Salafi al-Qaeda, are involved in a war with the central government. The attacks have left many civilian casualties.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says insecurity in Yemen is a regional and global threat, as the White House prepares the ground for a new war in the region.

“The instability in Yemen is a threat to regional stability and even global stability,” Clinton told reporters following talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani on Monday.

“And certainly, we know that this is a difficult set of challenges, but they have to be addressed,” she added.

She also said that Washington was working closely with its allies on deciding “the best way forward” to address the security concerns.

Clinton said the Yemeni government had to take measures to restore stability or risk losing Western support.

Citing warnings of a possible attack from an al-Qaeda-linked group Washington closed its embassy in Sana’a on Sunday, before reopening it on Tuesday.

After the US closed its embassy, Britain and later France did the same. Japan also decided to suspend consular services at its embassy.

The UK Foreign Office, however, denied that the embassy closure was linked to such a threat, saying that it was unaware about the warning.

In response to Western claims, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi rejected any comparison between his country and Afghanistan as an Al-Qaeda haven.

“Yemen is capable of confronting these groups, but it needs international aid to form and train anti-terrorist units as well as economic aid, since the problem also has an economic dimension,” Kurbi told reporters during a visit to Doha.

This is while international talks on the security and development situation in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, are expected to be held next month.

After Pakistan, southern Yemen is seen as the primary stronghold for al-Qaeda militants, a safe haven they are using to organize and train more recruits.

Despite apparent US calls for the eradication of al-Qaeda, allegations have been made that Washington has transferred “hundreds” of al-Qaeda members of different nationalities to Yemen after releasing them from prisons in Saudi Arabia and Guantanamo.

Arab media that have published the claims, such as Al-Minbar, write that the US is transferring al-Qaeda members to Yemen to have them recruited in the Yemeni army to target Shia Houthi fighters in northern parts of the country or use them as an excuse to deploy forces to Yemen.

A while after the claims were published the US engaged in direct military activity in Yemen, but allegations about recruiting al-Qaeda for the Yemeni army are yet to be proven.

Speculations are that former US presidential candidate John McCain made such a proposal while visiting Yemen back in August 2009.

He had reportedly embarked on the trip after several closed-door discussions were held at the US congress about the Arab country.

Allegations that the US is secretly transferring al-Qaeda members to Yemen could explain why a Nigerian man, who has been arrested and charged with trying to blow up the transatlantic plane on December 25, is said to have ties with the militants in Yemen.

The 23-year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has allegedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bomb-maker in Yemen for a mission on the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The West, spearheaded by the US, seems to be paving the ground to intervene in Yemen internal affairs under the pretext of opening an alleged front against al-Qaeda in the country.

The development comes more than eight years after the former US President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan. The operation was said to be aimed at eradicating militancy and the arrest of main militant leaders including Osama Bin Laden.

According to UN figures, Afghan civilians have been the main victims of the controversial war.

It appears that Washington needs to prove the West is insecure and under threat by the so-called terrorist groups like al-Qaeda to legitimize its wars, since such entities are merely the product of the media machines in the West.

The US has closed its embassy in Yemen after receiving threats from al-Qaeda, the embassy and foreign diplomats say.

The US has also instructed its embassy staff to stay in their homes until further notice, Reuters reported on Sunday.

“The US Embassy in Sana’a is closed today, January 3, 2010, in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack American interests in Yemen,” said a statement on the embassy website.

US officials had declared this week that the US was looking at ways to expand military and intelligence cooperation with the Yemeni government.

The British premier’s office says that Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama have agreed to fight what they call terrorism in Yemen and Somalia.

The UK and the US have agreed to fund a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle the rising threat from the country.

The British premier’s office says that Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama have agreed to fight what they call terrorism in Yemen and Somalia.

The UK and the US have agreed to fund a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle what they deem the rising threat from the country.

The US has been involved in war in Yemen by sending its special forces to train the Yemeni military and conducting air raids in both northern and southern parts of the Middle Eastern country.

On December 18, ABC News quoted anonymous administration officials as saying that US Nobel Peace Prize laureate President Barack Obama ordered the US military to launch air strikes on Yemen.

Upon the orders of Obama, the military warplanes on December 17 blanketed two camps in the North of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, claiming there were “an imminent attack against a US asset was being planned.” The attacks killed scores of civilians, according to Yemeni opposition groups.

US military intervention in Yemen comes at a time that the country’s army with full support from Saudi Arabia has been fighting with Shia Houthi fighters in northern parts of the country.

Houthi fighters say both Saudi and US fighter jets have been involved in bombing Shia villages, inflicting heavy civilian casualties.

Earlier, the fighters had expressed full readiness for dialogue with the Yemeni government.

The Houthis say they will turn to talks if the Yemeni and Saudi military halt their attacks against them.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana’a and Houthi fighters. Relative peace had returned to the region for a period before August 11, when the Yemeni army launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Scorched Earth, against Sa’ada Province.

The government claims that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 military coup.

The Houthis, however, say they are defending their people’s civil rights, which the government has undermined under pressure from Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists. Shias, who form the clear majority in the north, make up approximately half of Yemen’s overall population.

The United Nations, which according to its charter is set up “to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace,” has failed to adopt any concrete measures to help end the bloody war.
The latest alleged front against al-Qaeda in Yemen is opened more than eight years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan which was said to be aimed at eradicating militancy and the arrest of main militant leaders including Osama Bin Laden.

According to UN figures, Afghan civilians have been the main victims of the controversial war.

The Houthi fighters in Yemen say Saudi warplanes have carried out several airstrikes on the country’s beleaguered northern areas, leaving a child dead.

According to the fighters, the warplanes targeted more than 20 villages in Sa’ada province on Friday.

The fighters also reported that they have repelled an incursion by Saudi troops in an area near the border.

Saudi Arabia joined the Yemeni government’s campaign of cracking down on the Houthi fighters on November 3. Sana’a launched Operation Scorched Earth in August 2009, claiming that the fighters had breached the terms of a ceasefire by taking foreign tourists hostage.

The Houthis, however, deny the charges accusing the Yemeni government of violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.

Meanwhile, a Yemeni government source claimed that eleven fighters were killed in clashes with the country’s military.

The Source added that a number of “others were wounded in widespread combing operations and strikes by military and security units on Thursday against gatherings of Houthis,” Reuters reported on Friday.

Another unnamed source also claimed that Yemeni forces destroyed what he called a “terrorist den” in the northern Sa’ada region on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Yemen has admitted to receiving military aid from the United States, saying Washington is providing the Yemeni armed forces with war equipment and training.

“The United States helps Yemen train its counter-terrorism and coastguard forces and provide some military equipment,” government spokesman Tariq al-Shami said on Friday.

He added that Washington, which enjoys great intelligence capacities in the region thanks to its satellites, has also been sharing information with Sana’a.

The revelation comes despite the Yemeni government’s insistence in the past that it was only receiving technical assistance and information to fight what it describes as an al-Qaeda network operative in the beleaguered Arab nation.

Sana’a has also been denying US media reports saying the CIA was behind the military operations on Yemeni soil and that the US military carried out the airstrikes and raids in December, killing more than 60 people.

Although Sana’a and Washington claim the attacks are aimed at weeding out al-Qaeda-linked militancy in the country, local officials and witnesses in southern Yemen say the raids, targeted a large number of civilians.

Reports indicate US involvement in the ongoing Yemeni-Saudi offensive against Yemen’s Houthi fighters in the north of the country.

The Houthis accuse the United States of providing aerial support to Sana’a and claim the military is using US-made weapons to bomb civilian areas in northern Yemen.

While international bodies remain concerned over the deaths of hundreds and the displacement of tens of thousands Yemeni civilians, analysts criticize the Western media for showing no interest in covering the developments in the area.

“It is a neglected area as a matter of fact. That part of the world is not very important to many. Of course it is important to the inhabitants of the region,” former Syrian presidential advisor George Jabour told Press TV.

“Media has never held an objective on what to cover and what not to cover,” he noted, referring to a bigger share of media coverage for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Houthi fighters in northern Yemen say they have seized control of a Saudi military post along the border between the two countries where Saudi and Yemeni forces are waging a campaign to uproot them.

According to a report released by Hezbollah’s al-Manar television network, Houthis have seized “full control of the Al-Jamrah Saudi military post” as well as weapons, communication material, military vehicles and surveillance equipment.

The report added that the northern Yemen’s Shia fighters overran the Saudi post on Monday and forced soldiers to flee. The post is said to be located in close proximity to al-Khoba in Saudi Arabia’s southern province of Jizan.

Meanwhile, Houthi fighters have managed to repulse Saudi forces trying to infiltrate into the rugged Sa’ada province in northern Yemen, after killing an unspecified number of Saudi soldiers.

Houthis said they pushed back Saudi troops from Shada border region in northern Yemen on the border with oil-rich Saudi-Arabia, and also set four Saudi military vehicles ablaze.

Houthi fighters also resisted a Yemeni military infiltration into Jebel Dhar al-Hamar region.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana’a and Houthi fighters. The conflict intensified in August 2009 when the Yemeni army launched Operation Scorched Earth in an attempt to crush the fighters in the northern province of Sa’ada.

The Houthis accuse the Yemeni government of violation of their civil rights, political, economic and religious marginalization as well as large-scale corruption.

This is while in addition to the Yemeni government, Saudi Arabia also pounds the Houthis. The Houthis say that Saudi forces strike Yemeni villages and indiscriminately target civilians. According to the fighters, Saudis use toxic materials, including white phosphorus bombs, against civilians in northern Yemen.

The US military is also said to be involved in bombing Yemen’s northern rugged regions of Amran, Hajjah and Sa’ada.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that since 2004, up to 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa’ada and take refuge at overcrowded camps set up by the United Nations.

Millions of Muslims in Iran and around the world are mourning in commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussain (PBUH), the grandson of the Prophet of Islam.

Imam Hussein and 72 of his companions and family members were martyred at the hands of the forces of the caliph Yazid at Karbala, Iraq, over 1400 years ago.

The occasion is widely commemorated in Iran and many other Muslim countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Lebanon.

The martyrdom of Imam Hussein has evolved into a symbol of the struggle against injustice and tyranny among Muslims and many non-Muslims all over the world.

During annual Ashura commemorations, mourners, generally dressed in black, take to the streets or gather in mosques to grieve again the slaying of Imam Hussein (PBUH).

Yemeni lawmaker Yahya al-Houthi says Saudi Arabian warplanes are engaged in the relentless bombardment of civilian positions in Yemen’s war-torn north.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, the Yemeni lawmaker accused the Saudi army of using internationally banned weapons in its attacks on villages in the northern province of Sa’ada, regretting the high civilian toll from the raids.

If Riyadh had nuclear weapons, it would have used them against the Houthi fighters, the lawmaker charged.

Yemen’s beleaguered north, bordering the Saudi kingdom, has been the scene of a massive military operation by the Saudi-Yemeni forces, since the Sana’a government stepped up its offensive again the Shia fighters in August.

The central government in Yemen says the Houthis are trying to force the return of clerical rule in the country.

Houthi fighters, however, reject the allegations, accusing the Sunni-dominated Riyadh and Sana’a governments of joining forces to uproot the Shia faith in the territory, and of hiring terrorist elements to reach this goal.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia says it will stop its bombing campaign if the Houthis leave the border area, which the Houthis maintain they will do only after Riyadh has stopped aiding the Yemeni army.

This is while the US has been launching airstrikes on the southeastern parts of the impoverished Arab nation in the past two weeks as part of a military pact it signed with Yemen.

Washington is reportedly providing Sana’a with firepower and intelligence in addition to some 70 million dollars worth of military aid Pentagon has poured into Yemen this year.

The White House on Friday once again reiterated President Barack Obama’s support for the ongoing military operations across Yemen.

Iran Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that Yemen is confronting with some difficulties such as terrorism and al-Qaeda grouplet.

“The internal crisis in Yemen would be solved through negotiation,” Mottaki reiterated.

In an interview with IRIB Channel 2, the Foreign Minister termed the presence of American troops in Yemen’s conflicts as doubtful and said,” The attitude will create military conflicts in the region and target the recent developments in the world of Islam.”

“Yemen is in a critical condition and nobody benefits from massacre of Yemeni civilians,” Mottaki added.

“Saudi Arabia could safeguard its borders if the country is worry about the issue, but it should not interfere in Yemen’s internal affairs,” Foreign Minister said.

He said Iran has made no interfere in the internal affairs of Yemen and Yemeni officials have admitted to the issue.

About the 1975 Algiers Accord between Iraq and Iran, the Foreign Minister said,” The zero point at the two countries’ border has been destroyed during the last years which would be reconstructed.”

He said that IRI deputy foreign minister for legal affairs have talked about the issue with Iraqi officials last year and we reached an agreement in this regard but because of internal developments in Iraq, the country could not fulfill the agreement.

“Our troops came back to their position after they did their mission and we agreed to form a technical committee in this regard,” Mottaki pointed out.