Region

SANAA — Thousands of Yemenis took to the streets of Sanaa on Saturday in the largest demonstration against Houthis since the Shiite militiamen overran the capital in September.

"Down, down with the Houthis' rule," chanted the protesters who rallied following a call by the Rejection Movement — a group recently formed in provincial areas to challenge the powerful militia.

Dozens of Houthi supporters tried to stop the demonstration, triggering a brief scuffle, before they left, as the numbers of protesters kept increasing, an AFP correspondent reported.

Demonstrators gathered in Change Square near the University of Sanaa before they headed for Republican Palace, in central Sanaa, according to organisers.

The palace is the residence of Prime Minister Khalid Bahah, who left it on Wednesday for an unknown destination after a two-day siege by the militia.

But the protesters changed their route and headed towards the residence of embattled President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi to express their "rejection of his resignation", according to the organising committee.

The demonstrators were also demanding that Hadi "impose the authority of the state" in face of the tightening grip of Houthis on power, they said.

Hadi tendered his resignation Thursday saying he could no longer stay in office as the country was in "total deadlock".

Houthi gunmen backed by armoured vehicles were deployed along Sittin Street, where the president lives, but they only watched on as the protesters marched and did not attempt to stop them.

Large demonstrations also took off in the cities of Taez, Ibb and Hudaida, organisers said.

Parliament is set to hold an extraordinary meeting on Sunday to discuss Hadi’s resignation offer, which needs to be approved by lawmakers to take effect.

After heavy fighting between government forces and the Houthis this week that killed at least 35 people, the UN Security Council and Yemen’s Gulf neighbours had all voiced support for Hadi’s continued rule.

The situation escalated a week ago when the militiamen seized Hadi’s chief of staff, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, in an apparent bid to extract changes to a draft constitution they oppose because it would divide Yemen into six federal regions.

The Houthis still hold Mubarak and maintain a tight grip on the capital despite a deal struck late on Wednesday to end what authorities called a coup attempt.

In return for concessions over the disputed draft constitution, the Houthis had pledged to vacate the presidential palace, free Mubarak, withdraw from areas surrounding the residences of Hadi and Bahah, and abandon checkpoints across the capital.

The fall of Hadi’s Western-backed government would raise fears of complete chaos engulfing Yemen, strategically located next to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf.

WASHINGTON — Long-standing ties between the United States, the world’s oldest democracy, and Saudi Arabia, an ultra-conservative Islamic absolute monarchy, have strained at times, but the unlikely allies remain bound by mutual interests in regional stability and oil.

The depth of the complex relationship was highlighted late Thursday as President Barack Obama mourned the loss of King Abdullah, saying he had “appreciated our genuine and warm friendship” praising the late monarch as both “candid” and “bold”.

Full diplomatic relations between the United States and the Gulf kingdom were established in 1940 during the throes of World War II.

The partnership was sealed five years later in a historic meeting between then-king Abdul Aziz Bin Saud and US president Franklin D. Roosevelt on board the USS Quincy as it cruised the Suez Canal.

It was the discovery of vast oil reserves beneath Saudi sands in the late 1930s which secured the kingdom’s place as a vital partner for the energy-hungry United States, despite early disagreement on the establishment of Israel on the lands of British-mandated Palestine.

Indeed, at times Saudi Arabia has worked with Washington to advance US interests in terms of oil flows and prices.

But there has been increasing unease in Riyadh about Obama’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with archfoe Iran, as well as his commitment to energy independence.

“The most important part about the relationship is that the two sides need each other,” Marina Ottaway, senior Middle East scholar with the Woodrow Wilson Centre, told AFP.

“Saudi Arabia continues to remain important to the United States in terms of energy security ... and the Saudis have always felt in need of protection.”

Riyadh’s strategic location and unique spiritual authority as custodian of Islam’s two holiest sites has meant it has been key in helping to shore up stability in a turbulent Middle East.

‘Unparalleled cooperation’

When neighbouring Kuwait was invaded in 1990 by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, then-US president George H.W. Bush sent in more than 500,000 troops and launched Operation Desert Storm using US air bases in Saudi Arabia as vital staging posts.

It was “a moment of unparalleled cooperation between two great nations,” Bush said in a statement Thursday, paying tribute to his “dear friend” Abdullah.

But expert Ottaway said the Saudi royals never truly forgave Washington for the subsequent overthrow of Saddam in the second Gulf War in 2003, which they “feel was a major blunder... because it opened the door to Iranian influence”.

Ties had strained too after the September 2001 attacks on New York, when it was revealed that 15 of the 19 attackers were from Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudis... could simply not believe that 15 of their sons had hijacked these airplanes and done what they had done,” Robert Jordan, a former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told National Public Radio.

“They literally were in denial.”

A series of bloody 2003 attacks in the kingdom proved the turning point, turning Riyadh into a loyal and robust partner in the fight against Al Qaeda.

Saudi warplanes were also among the first to fly alongside the US when it began a series of airstrikes last September against Sunni militants from the Islamic State group in Syria.

Underlying tensions flared last year, however, when top Saudi officials were openly critical of America’s reluctance to intervene more forcefully in Syria to oust long-time Saudi foe, President Bashar Assad.

“The relationship is not what it was... in a dynamic and changing environment in the Middle East,” said Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Centre.

He pointed to both Obama’s policies and the style of his administration, amid a failure to make good on an early pledge to restore ties with the Muslim world.

Awaiting change 

Ties were better under Bush and his son, president George W. Bush, as it was “a relationship that was very much built on personal foundations,” Sheikh contended.

“In many ways a lot of Gulf leaderships are counting down the clock to when this administration leaves and the next one comes,” he told AFP.

“There’s nothing... that I would see that would make the relationship improve, because the US president is not going to do the things they want done,” agreed Karen Elliot House, an author and expert on Saudi Arabia affairs.

The Sunni-Muslim majority kingdom remains wary of close US ties to Israel, as well as Washington’s nuclear diplomacy with Shiite Iran, seen as Riyadh’s “greatest external danger,” House told AFP.

Political upheavals in Saudi’s unruly neighbour Yemen, where Shiite Houthi rebels believed to be backed by Iran have spread chaos, have upped the ante.

“There’s even more of a feeling in Gulf capitals that Iran is trying to encircle them,” said Shaikh. “And this at a time when the US is seeking to see how Iran could come back into the fold through the nuclear issue.”

Washington — With the collapse of the government in Sanaa, the United States has lost a reliable partner in its fight against Al Qaeda in Yemen with potentially dire consequences, officials and experts said Friday.

The result could mean an emboldened Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), able to operate more freely amid political turmoil and without pressure from US-trained government forces.

"Terrorist groups thrive on chaos, and the threat to the West could well grow," said Daniel Benjamin, a former coordinator for counter-terrorism at the State Department.

Yemen is arguably the most important front in America's struggle against Islamist extremists, given the dangerous track record of AQAP.

The group claimed responsibility for this month's deadly attack in Paris on the staff of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and has been linked to more than one attempt to blow up aircraft bound for the United States.

And until now, Washington has counted on the Yemeni government to share intelligence on AQAP, support US drone strikes against the group's leaders and permit the presence of dozens of US special operations forces.

US officials admit they are unsure what will be left of its counter-terrorism programme after Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a crucial US ally, resigned as president amid a confrontation with Shiite militia.

"Yemen has been an important partner for counter-terrorism," a defence official told AFP.

"They have not just given permission for US operations, but taken their own action on the ground... No one knows what comes next."

If a new government opted to scrap its collaboration with the Americans, then Washington would have to consider taking "unilateral" military action against AQAP, he said.

As Yemen plunged into turmoil, officials were weighing whether to evacuate the American embassy in the capital, as well as the more than 100 special operation forces advising the army.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said the US training had not been suspended despite the crisis, while acknowledging it was a "fluid situation”.

"There may have to be adjustments in the future, but we're just not there yet," Kirby said.

More drone strikes? 

The crisis has thrown the counter-terrorism effort in Yemen "into some disarray", said Adam Schiff, a Democratic lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee.

The prospect of conflict between Sunnis and Shiite Houthis "will only give a lot of comfort and free reign for Al Qaeda to have a resurgence in Yemen potentially", Schiff told MSNBC.

It will be increasingly difficult to keep the US embassy open in the face of violence in Sanaa, and that would mean no more American troops assisting the Yemeni army, said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who has advised several presidents.

"If the embassy closes, then the US military presence on the ground largely evaporates," said Riedel, a fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Washington then would have to rely exclusively on drone raids without assistance from local forces battling AQAP on the ground, or intelligence gleaned from captured militants, he said.

The demise of the current cooperation would mean "more, not less, drone strikes in the future”, he said — albeit without support or permission from Sanaa.

The US military and CIA have carried out more than 100 drone strikes in Yemen since 2009, as well as 15 cruise missile attacks, according to estimates from the Washington-based New America Foundation.

Some experts held out the possibility the Houthi militia that ousted the Western-backed government might opt to secretly cooperate with the Americans, as Houthis are fierce enemies of AQAP.

But the Houthis are also hostile to the United States and the West, and some former officials were sckeptical that any deal could be worked out.

"We've now got a bizarre situation in which the Houthis, who are the enemy of our enemy Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, are really not our friends and will likely inhibit our efforts to build the capacity of the Yemeni military and security forces," Benjamin said.

Limits of US power 

Just a few months ago, President Barack Obama had cited Washington's approach in Yemen as a model for taking on Islamic extremists without having to deploy large occupying forces.

For Riedel, "it was a good strategy, but it just didn't work. It didn't work because the Middle East is unravelling. And we can't stop the unravelling."

AQAP stands to gain from the power vacuum in Yemen and any weakening of the US campaign against it, heightening the danger that the group could pull off a sophisticated attack on Western targets, he said.

"I think AQAP is going to be one of the beneficiaries of the unraveling of Yemen," Riedel predicted.

Riyadh — World leaders headed to Saudi Arabia Saturday to offer condolences following the death of King Abdullah, with US President Barack Obama cutting short a trip to India to pay respects.

Obama had been scheduled to visit the Taj Mahal but cancelled that following the death of King Abdullah and will travel to Riyadh on Tuesday, the White House said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince Charles and French President Francois Hollande were among the leaders expected in the Saudi capital on Saturday to offer condolences to new King Salman.

King Abdullah was a cautious reformer who led the Gulf state through a turbulent decade in a region shaken by the Arab Spring uprisings and Islamic extremism.

He died on Friday at the age of about 90 after being hospitalised with pneumonia.

Since King Abdullah took the throne in 2005, Riyadh has been a prime Arab ally of Washington, last year joining the coalition carrying out air strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group.

World leaders have praised the king as a key mediator between Muslims and the West, but campaigners criticised his rights record and urged King Salman to do more to protect freedom of speech and women's rights.

Gulf rulers and leaders including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, were among those who attended King Abdullah's traditionally simple funeral at Riyadh's Imam Turki Bin Abdullah Mosque on Friday.

Africa was also represented, with Sudanese President Omar Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon arrived on Saturday to pay respects.

On Friday, the late king's body, wrapped in a cream-coloured shroud, was borne on a litter by members of the royal family wearing red-and-white checked headgear.

The body was quickly moved to nearby Al Od public cemetery and buried, in a grave marked only by a book-sized plain grey stone.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak arrived later to deliver condolences, as did Iraqi President Fuad Masum.

Masum had met with King Abdullah last November, helping to repair long-strained relations between the neighbours.

On Friday evening, hundreds of Saudis queued to enter a royal palace where they rubbed cheeks and kissed the hands of their new leaders, in a symbolic pledge of allegiance.

Similar pledge gatherings were planned for Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Valued ally 

Obama paid tribute to King Abdullah as a "valued" ally as the State Department indicated cooperation between Washington and Riyadh would continue.

King Salman pledged to keep the conservative, oil-rich Muslim kingdom on a steady course and moved to cement his hold on power.

In his first public statement as monarch, King Salman, 79, vowed to "remain, with God's strength, attached to the straight path that this state has walked since its establishment".

He called for "unity and solidarity" among Muslims and vowed to work in "the defence of the causes of our nation".

Moving to clear uncertainty over the transition to the next generation, he named his nephew, Interior Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, 55, as second in line to the throne behind Crown Prince Moqren, 69.

That helps to solidify control by his Sudayri branch of the royal family.

Prince Salman also appointed one of his own sons, Prince Mohammed, as defence minister of the world's leading oil exporter and the spiritual home of Islam.

"In spite of all the earlier articles and fears surrounding the succession, the Saudi royal family handled the succession without even a hint of crisis and laid the ground work for the future," wrote Anthony Cordesman, of the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Since the death in 1953 of the kingdom's founder, King Abdul Aziz Bin Saud, the throne has passed systematically from one of his sons to another.

As the top producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Saudi Arabia has been the driving force behind the cartel's refusal to slash output to support oil prices, which have fallen by more than 50 per cent since June.

Ali Al Naimi remains the kingdom's oil minister and the International Energy Agency's chief economist said he did not foresee major policy shifts.

"I expect and hope that they will continue to be a stabilisation factor in the oil markets," Fatih Birol told AFP.

Royal family stalwart 

Saudi Arabia is home to Islam's holiest sites and its role as a spiritual leader for Sunni Muslims has seen it vying for influence with Shiite-dominated Iran.

Tehran nonetheless offered its condolences, saying Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would arrive in Riyadh on Saturday.

Behind his thick, jet-black moustache and goatee, Abdullah had a shrewd grasp of regional politics.

Wary of the rising influence of Islamist movements, Saudi Arabia has been a generous supporter of Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah Al Sisi since the army ousted Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt declared seven days of official mourning for King Abdullah, and sent its prime minister to the funeral.

Riyadh has also played a key role in supporting opposition to Iranian-backed President Bashar Assad of Syria and will allow US troops to use its territory to train rebel fighters.

King Salman is widely expected to follow closely in King Abdullah's footsteps, in foreign and energy policy as well as in making moderate reforms.

King Abdullah pushed through cautious changes, challenging conservatives with such moves as including women in the advisory shura council.

He promoted economic development and oversaw accession to the World Trade Organisation, tapping into massive oil wealth to build new cities, universities and railways.

But the kingdom is still strongly criticised for a dismal human rights record, including the imprisonment and flogging of dissidents. It is also the only country in the world that does not allow women to drive.

While Saudi Arabia has managed to avoid the social upheaval that has shaken many of its neighbours in recent years, thanks in large part to massive public spending, the new king will face some major challenges, especially as falling oil prices cut into state revenues.

DAVOS, Switzerland — US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met for bilateral talks Friday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, an official source told AFP.

"Secretary Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif just concluded an hourlong meeting in Davos," a State Department source said, without providing more details.

The top-level meeting occurred as Iranian and US diplomats officially resumed talks in Switzerland on intensifying efforts to reach a deal on the future of Tehran's nuclear programme.

Two days of meetings between Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and top US negotiator Wendy Sherman began Friday morning in Zurich.

EU political director Helga Schmid was also taking part in the meetings, he added.

The talks are taking place less than a week after Araghchi met with Sherman and representatives for five other global powers in Geneva in a bid to hammer out a comprehensive deal which would rein in Tehran's nuclear programme in exchange for relief from a tight network of sanctions.

Kerry and Zarif already met last week in Geneva and then again in Paris to discuss the nuclear negotiations.

Under an interim deal agreed in November 2013 by Tehran and the so-called P5+1 powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany — Iran has frozen its uranium enrichment in exchange for limited sanctions relief.

But two deadlines for a full accord cutting off Iran's alleged ambition to build an atomic bomb have been missed.

Among issues complicating negotiations are hardliners in Washington and Tehran who appear willing to torpedo the efforts.

The new Republican-controlled US Congress is considering a fresh sanctions bill, despite strong opposition from President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto any such legislation.

Speaking in Davos, Zarif warned the US Congress on Friday against imposing new sanctions, saying this would lead to a collapse of negotiations.

If a sanctions bill does go through, some Iranian lawmakers have hinted they will push to retaliate by resuming unlimited uranium enrichment.

Top European diplomats on Thursday appealed for US lawmakers to hold off on the threatened new sanctions, pleading for time to allow the nuclear talks to succeed.

The US government's efforts to push towards a deal have, meanwhile, been complicated further by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to address Congress next month.

Netanyahu has called Iran's nuclear push the most "vital national security challenge" his nation faces, and Obama's allies fear his trip could be used by Israel and the Republicans to rally opposition to a nuclear deal.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The United Nations has accused Israel of illegally demolishing the homes of 77 Palestinians, mostly children, last week in annexed East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

"In the past three days, 77 Palestinians, over half of them children, have been made homeless," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement issued Friday evening.

"Some of the demolished structures were provided by the international community to support vulnerable families.

"Demolitions that result in forced evictions and displacement run counter to Israel's obligations under international law and create unnecessary suffering and tension. They must stop immediately," said OCHA.

The demolitions took place in East Jerusalem and the districts of Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron, it added.

OCHA said that during 2014 Israel carried out a record number of demolitions in East Jerusalem and a zone of the West Bank under full Israeli control known as Area C.

"In 2014, according to OCHA figures, the Israeli authorities destroyed 590 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and East Jerusalem, displacing 1,177 people — the highest level of displacement in the West Bank since OCHA began systematically monitoring the issue in 2008."

It did not specify how many of the structures were homes or animal shelters or other outbuildings.

Israel says such demolitions are carried out because the structures have been built without the required construction permits. Palestinians and rights groups say such authorisation is routinely denied, forcing unlicensed building.

"The planning policies applied by Israel in Area C and East Jerusalem discriminate against Palestinians, making it extremely difficult for them to obtain building permits," said OCHA.

"As a result, many Palestinians build without permits to meet their housing needs and risk having their structures demolished.

"Palestinians must have the opportunity to participate in a fair and equitable planning system that ensures their needs are met," it said.

AMMAN - Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died, the royal court said in a statement early on Friday that was broadcast by Al Arabiya TV. 

Cairo — Syria's regime-tolerated domestic opposition and members of the main exiled group demanding the president's ouster met Thursday in Cairo to discuss Moscow's invitation to host talks with the Damascus government.

The exiled National Coalition and top opposition figure Moaz Al Khatib have already announced they will not attend the talks aimed at finding a political solution to Syria's nearly four-year war.

The internal opposition has said invited members are free to decide whether to attend the January 26-29 talks in the Russian capital.

"The purpose of the conference is to discuss attending the Moscow meeting and to unify the Syrian opposition's political views," said Mohamed Hijazi, an official with the domestic National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change.

The National Coalition was being informally represented at the three-day conference in Cairo by several of its members, including Ahmed Jarba, a former NC chief who is close to Saudi Arabia.

A Coalition source said its members were not attending as official representatives.

"The Coalition as a body was not invited, invitations were only issued to 20 individual members," the source said. "Five members are attending, but as individuals."

"The Coalition decided no one would attend as an official representative because the Coalition was not invited as a body. We don't know the agenda of this meeting and we don't know who else is attending."

Moscow's effort to host the peace talks comes after two UN-brokered meetings in Geneva last year between regime and opposition representatives that failed to produce results.

BEIRUT — Thirteen people were killed in Syrian government raids using barrel bombs dropped by helicopter on a rebel-held area of central Homs province, a monitor said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two children were among the dead in the Wednesday attack on Hula.

The Britain-based group said new raids using barrel bombs were carried out in the provinces of Homs and northwestern Idlib on Thursday, but there was no immediate toll.

The Syrian government has regularly deployed the devastating bombs in rebel-held areas across the country, particularly opposition-held parts of Aleppo province.

Rights groups have criticised the bombs — crudely constructed devices made of barrels packed with explosives — as indiscriminate, citing the large number of civilians killed by them.

Syrian regime forces control most of central Homs province, with a few exceptions, including Hula and the town of Rastan.

Elsewhere in the province Wednesday, at least seven people were killed and 30 injured in a car bomb targeting a government-controlled district in Homs city, the provincial governor said.

The Observatory gave a higher toll, saying 10 people had been killed.

The blast hit the Akrameh neighbourhood, which is majority Alawite, the sect to which President Bashar Assad belongs.

The district has been targeted multiple times, including in October, when a double bomb attack killed 54 people, among them 47 children.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since it began in March 2011.

GAZA — A letter purported to be from Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas' armed wing, on Thursday appealed to the Lebanese Hizbollah group to unite with Hamas in battling Israel.

The letter, posted on the website of Hizbollah-run Al Manar TV, suggests the Palestinian Hamas and Hizbollah were patching up a rift over the Syrian war.

Hamas has been hostile towards Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Hizbollah, backed by Iran, has been fighting against the rebels trying to topple him.

"The true enemy of the nation is the Zionist enemy and all rifles must be directed against it," said the letter, which carried Deif's signature. "All forces of resistance must direct their coming battle as one."

Deif was targeted in an Israeli bombing in last summer’s Gaza war.

The letter offered Hamas’ condolences to Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah over the killing of six of its fighters in an Israeli air strike on Sunday in Syria near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel says Deif was behind the deaths of dozens of people in suicide bombings in its cities and has tried to assassinate him several times, including one attempt in August during the 50-day Gaza war. The shadowy leader, whose health condition is unknown, has been in hiding for years.

Hamas, in political and financial isolation, has been anxious to revitalise old alliances and restore its battered funding. In December, it said it had restored its ties with Iran, which had been angered by Hamas’ stance against Assad.

Teheran has long been a major supplier of military and financial aid to the group.