Ankara supports Saudi Arabia’s military operation against Huthis

ANKARA

Civil defence workers and people search for survivors under the rubble of houses destroyed by an air strike near Sanaa Airport March 26, 2015. REUTERS Photo

Turkey said in a statement on March 26 that it supports Saudi Arabia’s military operation against Huthi rebels in its southern neighbor.

“We support Saudi Arabia’s military operation against the Huthis. We believe this operation will contribute to the prevention of civil war and the strengthening of legitimate state authority in the country,” stated the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

“We strongly condemn the Huthi movement’s unilateral actions by rejecting all agreements in Yemen, including U.N. Security Council resolution No. 2201, and its military move to occupy Aden, where the legitimate President Hadi has taken shelter and announced as Yemen’s temporary capital,” it added.

A Saudi-led intervention is ongoing in Yemen to push back Shiite rebels advancing on the Aden stronghold of embattled President Abedrabbo Mansur Hadi.

Saudi warplanes launched strikes on Huthi rebels in Yemen on March 26, as the kingdom said it had assembled a coalition of more than 10 countries to check the rebels’ advance and prevent the fall of Hadi.

The rebels and their allies within Yemen’s armed forces had been closing in on main southern city Aden, where Hadi has been holed up since fleeing the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa last month.