Saudi pledges to cover entire $274m sought by the UN for Yemen

It comes after the United Nations made an appeal for emergency assistance to help the millions affected by the country's war, in which Saudi-led airstrikes are targeting Shiite rebels.

Yemeni children wait to eat donated food at a temporary shelter in the port town of Bosasso in Somalia's Puntland on April 17, 2015, after fleeing the violence in Yemen. Feisal Omar/Reuters

SANAA // Saudi Arabia has pledged to cover the entire US$274 million sought by the United Nations to meet humanitarian needs in conflict-torn Yemen, which has been the target of Saudi-led airstrikes against Shiite rebels.

It came as Iranian president Hassan Rouhani harshly criticised Saudi Arabia on Saturday, warning that the royal family in Riyadh will harvest the hatred it is sowing in Yemen through its airstrike campaign.

Since March 26, the Saudi-led coalition has been attacking Iranian-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis and allied fighters loyal to Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Iran supports the rebels but denies providing any military support.

The UN says that hundreds of people have so far died in the war, while thousands of families have fled their homes. Six Saudi security personnel have also been killed in border skirmishes.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered the humanitarian pledge following a United Nations appeal on Friday for $274m (Dh2bn) in emergency assistance for the millions affected by Yemen’s war.

The kingdom “stands with its Yemeni brothers” and hopes for “the restoration of security and stability,” said the state Saudi Press Agency, quoting an official statement.

UN humanitarian coordinator Johannes Van Der Klaauw said in the UN’s appeal that “ordinary families are struggling to access health care, water, food and fuel – basic requirements for their survival.”

Aid has so far only trickled into the country, largely because of restrictions imposed by the Saudi-led coalition on the country’s air space and seaports.

Meanwhile, Mr Rouhani, while addressing an army parade in Tehran on Saturday, said that killing civilians in Yemen will bring neither power nor pride for Saudi Arabia.

“Will killing children bring power to you? You planted the seeds of hatred in this region and you will see the response sooner or later,” he said, in a speech broadcast live on state television. “Don’t bomb children, elderly men and women in Yemen. Attacking the oppressed will bring disgrace ... for the aggressors.”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has already called the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen “genocide” and a “major crime.”

On Friday, Iran submitted a four-point Yemen peace plan to the UN’s secretary general Ban Ki-moon. The plan includes humanitarian aid, dialogue and the formation of a broad-based Yemeni unity government after a proposed ceasefire was already rejected by Saudi Arabia.

Mr Rouhani also accused Riyadh of providing weapons and funding to terrorist groups in the Middle East.

“What does providing financial assistance and weapons to terrorists in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq mean,” he asked.

Iran accuses Saudi Arabia and several other Middle East governments of supporting ISIL. Riyadh and its allies, meanwhile, accuse Tehran of arming the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The Houthi swept into the capital Sanaa last September from their highland stronghold and then advanced south on the port city of Aden, forcing president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

At least 27 people were killed in the Yemeni city of Taez in clashes between pro-Hadi forces and rebels, as well as in coalition air raids, medical sources said yesterday.

Residents said the city in south-west Yemen had been rocked by explosions and gunfire overnight. Nineteen rebels, four soldiers of a mechanised army unit loyal to the president and four other pro-Hadi fighters were killed.

On Friday, coalition warplanes carried out heavy air strikes on a presidential palace in Taez, and on positions held by special forces units loyal to Mr Saleh.

Residents and security sources said rival fighters also clashed on Friday night in districts of Aden, while pro-Hadi forces – with the support of air strikes – held off rebels battling for the past week for control of the port city’s refinery.

In a report released on Saturday, Human Right Watch said unidentified militiamen had fired on a hospital where rebel soldiers held a position in the southern Yemeni province of Lahj, causing damage and endangering medical personnel.

Yemeni soldiers aligned with the Houthis had deployed snipers to the area last week, the report said, and later positioned a tank next to the hospital’s entrance. Opposing gunmen started attacking last Monday, it said.

“Fighters on both sides in Lahej have unlawfully put a hospital in the middle of a battle,” said Joe Stork, the watchdog’s deputy Middle East and North Africa director.

The World Health Organization, in its latest toll, said 767 people have died in Yemen’s war since March 19, while more than 2,900 have been wounded. The majority have been civilians.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press