UN Security Council demands halt to Yemeni protests

UN Security Council demands halt to Yemeni protests
Sat Aug 30, 2014 09:36:38

The United Nations Security Council has gone as far as demanding the Houthi population in Yemen to end their protest rallies against the widely unpopular, US-backed government there.

The 15-member world body accused the Houthis on Friday of attempts “to obstruct the political transition."

“The Houthis and others continue to stoke the conflict in the north in an attempt to obstruct the political transition," said the Security Council.

The members also demanded that the Houthis pull out their fighters from the al-Jawf region “and remove the camps and dismantle the checkpoints they have erected in and around Sana’a."

"The Security Council calls on the Houthis to withdraw their forces from Amran.”

The world body has threatened to impose sanctions on anyone who endangers the stability of the Arab country.

Hundreds of thousands of the demonstrators have taken to the streets of the capital Sana’a, calling on the government to resign.

Yemen’s northwestern city of Amran, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) north of Sana’a, has also been under the Houthis’ control since early July.

Yemen’s Shia Houthi movement draws its name from the tribe of its founding leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.

The Houthi movement played a key role in the popular revolution that forced former US-backed dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down in February 2012.

NTJ/MB

string(693) "[{"id":"1596064","sort":"3250594","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2014/05/21/alalam_635362875860844534_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Thousands rally for south Yemen independence"} ,{"id":"1597458","sort":"3250595","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2014/05/26/alalam_635366949544990807_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"HRW slams inaction on migrants in Yemen, S. Arabia"} ,{"id":"1609520","sort":"3250596","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2014/07/09/alalam_635404934860578047_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Houthi fighters capture city near Yemeni capital"} ,{"id":"1624010","sort":"3250597","contenttypeid":"21","pic":"/2014/08/18/alalam_635439774513939671_25f_4x3.jpg","title":"Tens of thousands in Yemen protest against gov’t"} ]"