[28/11/2017 01:53]

RIYADH-SABA

The ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Yemen Mohammed Al Jaber said the kingdom is keen on saving the

Yemeni people from the the Houthi-Saleh rebel militias' crimes that threaten Yemen and its cultural and civilizational legacy.

Al Jaber was delivering a keynote speech In a seminar on "Preserving Heritage and Artifacts in Yemen" held by the Gulf Researches Center and Yemen's permanent mission to the UNESCO in Paris on Monday.

He said that the Arab Coalition forces backing the government against the rebels follow strict instructions to avoid hitting Yemen's archaeological sites. But the rebels deliberately embed themselves in these sites and set up their military outposts to take them as shields and, hence, "expose them to danger."

He said that Saudi Arabia prevented a civil war in Yemen in 2011 and brokered an agreement, a transitional phase and an inclusive dialogue and that that the "Yemenis resolved the root causes of conflicts and began implementing the dialogue outcomes only for Iran to intervene in the last moment, through its proxy militias (the Houthis), to undermine all political efforts and dash the beautiful hopes of Yemenis."

He said that the rebel militias "looted artifacts of the National Museum in Aden, more than 5 thousand pieces, and heavily shelled the General Organization for Artifacts and Manuscripts in Taiz" reducing it to rubble.

The militias, he said, also attacked Marib Dam which dates back to the first millennium before Christ.
"All these abuses are practiced amidst the political chaos which the militias incurred with Iranian support," he said.

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