Pakistani PM urges Iran to bring Yemen's rebels to talks
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Pakistan's prime minister on Monday called on Iran to use its influence to help bring Yemen's Shiite rebels to the negotiating table on the crisis roiling their country, where Saudi-led airstrikes have been targeting the rebels for over two weeks.
The call came after the parliament in Sunni-majority Pakistan voted on Friday against contributing troops to the Saudi-led coalition, as Pakistani officials said the kingdom had requested. Lawmakers also unanimously demanded that Pakistan "maintain its neutrality in the Yemen conflict" in order to help negotiate a diplomatic solution.
The fighting in Yemen has increasingly taken on the appearance of a proxy war between Shiite powerhouse Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, regional rivals that are also at loggerheads over conflicts in Syria and elsewhere.
