WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia and its Arab coalition partners "strongly support" an agreement reached on Yemen in UN-brokered peace talks Thursday, which includes a ceasefire in the vital port of Hodeida, Riyadh's US ambassador Prince Khalid Bin Salman said.
"The agreement announced today will help bring back security to the region including the security of the Red Sea, a vital water way for international trade," the envoy said on his Twitter account.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced the breakthrough in Sweden, where representatives of the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi rebels held talks on ending the conflict in Yemen.
In a series of tweets, the Saudi ambassador to the United States expressed support for the agreement while defending the Kingdom's role in the four-year-old war.
"#KSA and the Arab Coalition strongly support the agreement announced in Sweden today," he wrote. "The agreement is a major step towards alleviating the humanitarian crisis and reaching a political solution."
He stressed the Iranian-backed Houthis as the cause of the humanitarian crisis and maintained that "only consistent military pressure by the Yemeni armed forces and the Arab coalition forced them to agree" to UN supervision of Hodeida.
"We hope that the Houthis accept a comprehensive political solution, in accordance with relevant UN resolutions, that serves the interests of Yemen and its people rather than working on behalf of the Iranian regime's interests," the ambassador said.
"We remain committed to ending the humanitarian crisis to help Yemen rebuild," he said. — AFP