Houthi followers hold up their weapons during a demonstration against the Saudi-led air strikes, in Sanaa May 8, 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS: Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says a five-day ceasefire in Yemen will start May 12 at 11 p.m.
Adel al-Jubeir says the stop in fighting will be renewable, depending on compliance by Yemen's Houthi rebels and their allies.
He urged them to cease fighting. He made the comments at a news conference in Paris.
Only hours ago, Saudi-led forces carried out air strikes in Yemen’s Saada province, a bastion of Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, and warned all civilians to leave a day after Riyadh promised a harsh response to cross-border Houthi attacks.
Read: Saudi-led air strikes target Houthi bastion in Yemen's Saada province
Saudi state television channel Al Ekhbariya said the whole of the northwestern province would become a military target from Friday evening, hinting at an escalation in the Saudi-led coalition’s six-week-old intervention in Yemen’s civil war.
Saudi Arabia yesterday offered a five-day humanitarian truce on Thursday to the Houthi militia it has hit with weeks of airstrikes in neighbouring Yemen, on condition that fighting across Yemen stops.
Read: Saudi Arabia offers five-day Yemen ceasefire
International concern about Yemen’s dire humanitarian situation has grown as fighting, airstrikes and an arms embargo have led to civilian deaths, internal displacement, destruction of infrastructure and shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
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