RIYADH - Air strikes in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia will continue until Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who left the country on Thursday, is able to rule, a Saudi military spokesman said on Sunday.
Riyadh announced early on Thursday that it and nine other Sunni Muslim countries had commenced air strikes against the Shi'ite Houthi militia, who are allied to the kingdom's main regional foe Iran. Iran, which denies helping the Houthis, has strongly condemned the offensive.
"We will set the conditions necessary to allow the president and his government to run the country," said Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the coalition.
"The Yemeni army was almost dismantled (by internal fractures after a 2011 uprising) ... one of the conditions is for them to take over. We will continue to attack the militias, we will keep them under pressure, until the conditions become very favorable for the army to take over," he said.
Speaking to a small group of reporters after a regular media briefing in Riyadh, Asseri said the strikes had succeeded in stopping the Houthi advance on Aden and in putting pressure on the group across the country.