Houthi insurgency in Yemen

Iran's president said on August 2 his country's nuclear deal with the West would create better prospects for faster solutions in Syria and Yemen, two of the Middle East's worst conflict zones.

Saudi-led coalition air strikes and clashes killed at least 176 fighters and civilians in Yemen on July 6, residents and media run by the Houthi movement said, the highest daily toll since the Arab air offensive began more than three months ago. 

The United Nations has been pushing for a halt to air raids and intensified fighting that began on March 26.

Shelling by Yemen's Houthi militia killed four soldiers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates stationed on Yemen's border with the kingdom, Saudi state media reported on June 25.

The Houthis have stepped up attacks on Saudi border posts in recent weeks, despite three months of bombardment by a Saudi-led coalition intent on restoring Yemen's government in exile. 

The United Nations on June 17 extended stalled Yemen peace talks taking place in Geneva, with both the exiled government and the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels accusing each other of trying to sabotage the process.

Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels said May 11 that they shot down a warplane of the Saudi-led coalition, shortly after Morocco said one of its fighter jets had gone missing on a sortie.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavu?o?lu and his Qatari counterpart, Khalid bin Muhammad al-Attiyah, have both called for a political solution to end the crisis in Yemen.

Iranian-allied Houthi fighters in Yemen accepted on May 10 a five-day humanitarian ceasefire proposed by adversary Saudi Arabia but warned they would respond to any violations.
   
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia had said on May 9 that the ceasefire could begin on May 12 if the Houthi militia agreed to the pause.

The Yemeni commander of a vast military district covering half the country's border with Saudi Arabia pledged support to Saudi-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on April 19, local officials said. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an went on two important visits to regional capitals over the last two months: The first was to Riyadh on March 2, while the other was to Tehran on April 7.

The United States will not stand by while Iran provides support to Shiite rebels who have seized much of Yemen, Secretary of State John Kerry said on April 8.
      
"There have been -- there are, obviously -- flights coming from Iran. Every single week there are flights from Iran and we've traced it and know this," Kerry told PBS television in an interview.