S Arabia steps in to bail out Yemen govt

RIYADH, Jan 17 (AFP): Saudi Arabia announced on Wednesday it would transfer $2 billion to Yemen's central bank, following desperate calls for a financial rescue from the beleaguered government it has supported militarily for nearly three years.
The bailout aims to curb the fall in value of the Yemeni riyal, which has plummeted as the war between the Saudi-backed government and Huthi Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much of the north has dragged on.
"To address the deteriorating economic situation faced by the Yemeni people as a result of the actions of the Iranian-backed Huthi militias, King Salman bin Abdulaziz has issued a directive to transfer a $2 billion deposit to the central bank of Yemen," the Saudi interior ministry said.
The riyal currently trades at 500 to the dollar, down from around 215 before the war, a serious depreciation for a country that relies heavily on imports of basic foodstuffs.
In 2016, the Yemeni government moved the central bank to second city Aden from the capital where the rebels operate their own rival central bank.
More than one million civil servants lost their jobs in the bank transfer, and both the Sanaa and Aden central banks have struggled to pay salaries.
Saudi Arabia, which itself faces a hefty budget deficit, has led a military coalition in support of the government since March 2015.
But as the intervention nears its fourth year, the government's authority is still largely confined to the south.
The conflict has left more than three-quarters of Yemenis in need of humanitarian aid and some 8.4 million at risk of famine, the UN humanitarian affairs office said on Tuesday
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had intercepted a fresh missile attack by Yemeni rebels on the south of the kingdom and renewed its accusations that arch-foe Iran had armed them.
The Huthi rebels said on their Al-Masirah television channel that they had fired two missiles at Saudi border provinces but there was no immediate mention of a second from the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting them since 2015.
Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said that Saudi air defences had intercepted one missile over Jizan province on the Red Sea coast late on Tuesday.
The rebels said they had fired a second at a military base in Najran province, inland and just across the border from their stronghold of Saada.
In a statement on the official Saudi Press Agency, Maliki accused Iran of arming the Huthis "in clear and explicit violation" of UN Security Council resolutions.
Since November, the rebels have fired multiple missiles into Saudi Arabia, all of which Saudi forces say they intercepted.