WARSAW, Feb 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Yemen’s Foreign Minister
Khaled al-Yamani said a “protocol error” landed him next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a conference in the Polish capital Warsaw and that his country’s stance on the Palestinian issue remained unchanged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Protocol errors are the responsibility of the organisers, as is always the case in international conferences,” he wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yamani was already seated when Netanyahu took his place on Thursday at an international conference in Warsaw focused on security in the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two nodded at each other and exchanged brief smiles as Netanyahu sat down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During a part of the session closed to the press, Yamani later lent Netanyahu his microphone when the Israeli premier’s audio equipment did not work properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace envoy Jason Greenblatt hailed the exchange on Twitter, calling it a “lighthearted moment” that could be the sign of “new cooperation” between the Jewish and Arab states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yemen and Israel have never had diplomatic relations, and Yamani’s friendly interaction with Netanyahu drew criticism online and from his government’s opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The stance of Yemen and President (Abedrabbo Mansour) Hadi on the Palestinian issue and its people and leadership is firm,” Yamani insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said Yemen attended the Warsaw conference not to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “but to mobilise the international community to confront the Iranian expansion in Yemen”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its participation was also “part of the battle to restore” the internationally-recognised government, which is at war with Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Yamani added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Houthis late Thursday issued a statement “rejecting all attempts to normalise” relations with Israel “at the expense of Arab and Islamic causes, primarily the Palestinian cause”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yamani’s participation alongside Netanyahu revealed the “moral bankruptcy” of Yemen’s government “and its sponsors in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi”, the rebels said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The war between the Houthis and pro-government troops escalated in March 2015, when President Hadi fled into exile in Riyadh and a Saudi-led military coalition that includes the United Arab Emirates intervened against the rebels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around 10,000 people – mostly civilians – have been killed and more than 60,000 wounded in the conflict, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Netanyahu called the Warsaw meeting a “historical turning point”, saying Israel and Arab states that attended had stood united against Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said he hoped that cooperation could extend to other areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Top officials from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain – none of which recognise Israel – sat down with Netanyahu for dinner Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel only has diplomatic relations with two Arab states, neighbouring Egypt and Jordan. — NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WARSAW, Feb 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Yemen’s Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani said a “protocol error” landed him next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a conference in the Polish capital Warsaw and that his country’s stance on the Palestinian issue remained unchanged. “Protocol errors are the responsibility of the organisers, as is always the case […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}