(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Responding to reports that Yemen President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi fled on a boat as Shiite rebels and their allies advanced on Aden, White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Wednesday said the United States continues to strongly condemn military actions in Yemen that have targeted Hadi.
"The actions of the Houthis and former President (Ali Abdullah) Saleh have caused widespread instability and chaos that threatens the well-being of all Yemenis," Earnest said during a briefing.
The international community has spoken clearly through UN Security Council resolutions and other means that the violent takeover of Yemen by an armed faction is unacceptable, he said, and that the only legitimate transition can be accomplished through political negotiations and a consensus agreement among all the parties based on the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative and national dialogue.
"We believe that there is a path here that can be pursued to try to resolve the differences among the parties," Earnest said. "However, that path cannot be pursued as long as you have the Houthis working with former President Saleh to foment a lot of instability in the country." "We would call on them to stop that instability and that violence, and cooperate with this UN-led process to resolve the differences among all the sides," he added.
Although the United States has relocated its personnel outside Yemen, US officials still have the ability - via ongoing communications with government personnel, as well as assets and resources that the United States maintains in the region - to continue to apply pressure on the extremists seeking to capitalize on the chaos in Yemen to establish a safe haven to plan and potentially execute attacks against the West, Earnest said.
"We are going to continue to apply pressure to those individuals," he said.
Extremist leaders in Yemen remain "on the cross hairs of US security forces and other security forces that are deployed to protect the American people and to protect American interests around the globe," Earnest said
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