SANA, Yemen — Arab leaders vowed Saturday to back the embattled Yemeni president as a Saudi Arabia-led coalition intensified airstrikes on Shiite-rebel targets across Yemen, escalating a conflict that residents fear could lead to a land invasion.
The rebels, known as Houthis, pressed on despite the airstrikes, and pounded the southern city of Aden with tank fire, witnesses reported. One politician described a situation of “great chaos” in the city, a key prize in the Yemen battle. Hospitals filled with the wounded. Dozens of diplomats fled the city.
Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi slipped out of Aden and sought refuge in Saudi Arabia this past week, after struggling for months to maintain power as Houthi rebels seized increasing areas of the country. The Saudis and their allies think that the Shiite rebels are backed by Iran and that Iran is trying to exert control over a country that had been an ally of Saudia Arabia and the United States.
Support for Hadi was voiced by leaders attending the Arab League summit Saturday in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh — a rare sign of unity in a region rife with divisions.
The rulers of Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, among others, billed Yemen’s spiral into chaos as a grave threat to the entire Middle East. On Saturday, officials submitted a draft resolution to create a joint Arab military force to respond to the region’s growing crises.
The details of any potential security regime remained unclear. But with battles raging across Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, the show of Arab support for the anti-Houthi offensive underscored a readiness by regional states to interfere in neighboring countries beset by violence.
“The Arab nation has passed through many phases, none of which has posed as much of a threat as the one we’re experiencing now,” Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi said at the summit.
King Salman of Saudi Arabia, in another speech to the delegates, vowed to continue military operations in Yemen “until stability is returned,” a reference to restoring Hadi’s authority.
The Saudis are leading a coalition of about 10 countries that have pledged warplanes and ships to the Yemen fight. Several countries, including Egypt, have said they are prepared to commit ground forces to the operation if necessary.
Hadi also addressed the summit, expressing his approval of the coalition attacks that began Thursday and declaring that the military operation “must continue.” He characterized the rebels who effectively toppled his government in Sana in February as “stooges” of Iran.
The remarks highlighted the escalating tensions between the region’s major rivals: Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran.
