Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has stressed on Thursday the necessity of giving precedence to a political solution to reach a comprehensive settlement in Yemen. According to an official statement by the foreign ministry, Shoukry received Yemen's Head of Shura Council Ahmed Ubaid Bin Dagher in a meeting in Cairo that tackled the Yemeni crisis' latest developments and means to bolster Egypt's support to Yemen. Shoukry reiterated Egypt's steadfast position towards the Yemeni crisis given that the country is one of the pillars of national Arab security. He stressed the necessity of a political solution that would lead to putting an end to negative interferences in Yemen and ensure its unity and territorial integrity. He welcomed an initiative by Saudi Arabia in March 2021 to resolve the Yemeni crisis, underscoring the necessity of Yemeni parties responding to the initiative by Riyadh to stop the bloodshed and back peace-making efforts in Yemen. Saudi Arabia's initiative calls for holding a ceasefire overseen by the UN across the war-torn country, reopening Sanaa International Airport to a number of direct regional and international destinations and starting UN-sponsored consultations between the Yemeni parties to reach a political resolution. The conflict in Yemen began after the 2014 takeover of the capital Sanaa by the Houthis, which led the Saudi-led coalition to intervene in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised Yemeni government. Since the Saudi coalition's intervention, the kingdom has intercepted hundreds of drone and missile strikes by the Houthi rebels.
