United Nations: Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies presented powerful members of the UN Security Council with suggested elements for a resolution that would impose an arms embargo on Al Houthi rebels who have thrown Yemen into turmoil and caused its Western-backed president to flee.
Diplomats said after a meeting on Thursday evening with ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France that members of the Gulf Coordination Council want the resolution to be militarily enforceable under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
The GCC members also presented the Security Council president with a letter explaining that their airstrikes targeting military installations held by the Houthi rebels are in response to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s request this week for immediate aid as the rebels closed in.
The current president of the Security Council, French Ambassador Francois Delattre, did not comment on his way out of the meeting. Another permanent council member, Russia, met with the Gulf members earlier on Thursday.
One diplomat who attended the meeting said the GCC members stressed that an arms embargo would block arms only to the Al Houthi rebels and not to Yemen’s government.
The diplomat said the members do not want a repeat of Libya, whose internationally recognised government has to ask a UN sanctions committee for exemptions to that country’s arms embargo when it wants to obtain weapons.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk publicly.
