Saudis announce ceasefire in fighting against Yemen rebels

Jan 27, 2010, 12:52 GMT

Riyadh - Saudi Arabia is no longer fighting Yemeni rebels along the two countries' border, Saudi Arabia's deputy defence minister said Prince Khaled bin Sultan said Wednesday.

In televised remarks, Prince Sultan said fighting against the rebels had stopped following the rebels' withdrawal from Saudi territory in exchange for a ceasefire.

He told reporters that Saudi Arabia would agree to the rebels' offer of a ceasefire if they would agree to withdraw to 10 kilometres south of border, and to return 6 Saudi prisoners.

He said that Saudi Arabia was holding 1,500 Houthi rebels prisoner.

If the rebels agreed to these conditions, Saudi Arabia would henceforth view Yemen's conflict with the rebels an internal, Yemeni matter, Prince Sultan said in remarks broadcast on the satellite news network al-Jazeera.

Prince Sultan also repeated Saudi accusations that Iran had been arming the rebels in their six-year-old campaign against the Yemeni government, citing the kind of weaponry they had used against Saudi forces.

Prince Sultan last week said that at least 82 Saudi soldiers had died in the fighting, and that 470 had been injured.