RIYADH - Minister of Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir asserted that Houthi rebels and their allies in Yemen are the only ones who can bring an end to the seven-month-old war there. "I believe that the matter to end hostilities lies entirely with the Houthis and with ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. They are the ones who started this, and they are the ones who continue this," he told a joint press conference with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius. "The coalition has achieved success in reversing the gains by Houthi-Saleh forces in Yemen, and now is the time for a political process to begin based on UN Resolution 2216," Jubeir said. On his part, Fabius said France supported efforts towards a political solution but needed all parties to agree to talks. Al-Jubeir said Riyadh's position on Syria had not changed, insisting that President Bashar Al-Assad had no future in Syria. Asked if Saudi Arabia had changed its stance, Jubeir said: "There is no change. From the beginning of the crisis, the position of the Kingdom is that Bashar is the problem in the Syria crisis. He killed hundreds of thousands of his people, displaced millions and destroyed the country as a whole, and he has no future in Syria," he added. Al-Jubeir emphasized that Saudi Arabia and France are identical in their views in almost all issues of mutual concern. "We have common views with regard to Iran's interference in the region and the importance of addressing them, the support to legitimacy in Yemen, resolution of the Syrian crisis, applying reforms in Iraq, holding presidential elections in Lebanon, and reviving the Middle East peace process on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative and the like," he said adding that such convergence of viewpoints happens very rarely between two countries in the world.
