Morocco joins Saudi-led op in Yemen

Aden, March 27 

Yemen’s beleaguered government said Saudi-led air strikes against its Houthi militia opponents would not last long on the second day of a mainly Gulf Arab campaign against the Iranian-allied militia that risks escalating a regional proxy conflict.

Warplanes targeted Houthi forces controlling Yemen’s capital and their northern heartland on Friday and, in a boost for Riyadh, fellow monarchy Morocco said it would join the rapidly-assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Shia Muslim group.

But Pakistan, named by Saudi Arabia on Thursday as a partner, said it had made no decision on whether to contribute, although it pledged to defend the kingdom against any threat to its solidarity. Riyadh’s move is the latest front in a growing regional contest for power with Iran that is also playing out in Syria, where Tehran backs Assad’s government against mainly Sunni rebels, and Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias are playing a major role in fighting.

Sunni monarchies in the Gulf are backing embattled Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi against the Shia advance. Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen, asked if the campaign would last days, weeks or more, told Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television: “I expect that this operation will not go on for long, I think it will be days.”

In a Facebook post, Hadi urged Yemenis to be patient, saying the “rebels”, a reference to Houthis, would soon be gone. Despite the air strikes, Houthi fighters and forces allied to Saleh entered the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwa on Friday through the central province of Bayda.