By Richard Mably and Dominic Evans

LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's military intervention in neighboring Yemen shows that the Sunni monarchy will stand up to Iran and that Arab states can protect their interests without U.S. leadership, the kingdom's ambassador to Britain said.

Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf also said that the Saudi-led coalition that has waged four weeks of air strikes against Shi'ite Houthi fighters in Yemen had met its goals and could be a model for future joint Arab action.

The coalition announced a halt to its aerial campaign on Tuesday, but said it would continue to act as needed against Houthi rebels who control the capital Sanaa and have been fighting to take over the southern port of Aden.

The traditionally cautious kingdom says it launched the air strikes because its regional rival Iran had been training, arming and financing the Houthis, extending Tehran's influence in the Arab world to Saudi Arabia's southern border.

Shi'ite Iran denies supporting the Houthis militarily and has sharply criticized Saudi Arabia's campaign.

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Saudi soldiers stand on top of armor vehicles, on the border with Yemen at a military point in Najra …

"Iran should not have any say in Yemeni affairs. They are not part of the Arab world," Prince Mohammed told Reuters in an interview in the Saudi embassy in London. "Their interference has ignited instability, they have created havoc in our part of the world and we've seen the events that took place because of their malignant policies."

"Hence you have the coalition and a new foreign policy for all of us. We want an Arab world free of any outside interference," the prince said. "We can deal with our own problems."

The military campaign put an end to "the perception that we were not capable, not able, that we didn't have the guts to take such difficult decisions," he said.

Washington has played a limited support role in the four-week campaign, reflecting President Barack Obama's wariness over U.S. military commitments in the Middle East, although it has accelerated some arms supplies, bolstered intelligence sharing and offered aerial refueling of Arab coalition jets.

"The Obama doctrine is very clear," Prince Mohammed said. "This is a friendship which is historical, which will continue, but we have to assert ourselves. Not only Saudi Arabia, but Arab countries. It has to be collective."

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Prince Mohammed Bin Nasser Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud (centre), Emir of the Jizan province, arrives for a …

POLITICAL NEGOTIATIONS

The air strikes, which involved more than 2,400 sorties by Saudi jets and their Arab allies, have failed to drive the Houthis out of Aden. But they have struck weapons depots, disrupted supply lines and weakened the Houthis and their allies in the southern provinces of the country.

Saudi Arabia has demanded the return of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled the country a month ago, and implementation of a U.N. resolution calling for the Houthis to withdraw from Aden and Sanaa.

Prince Mohammed said the campaign was now in a new phase.

"This is not a ceasefire, but an operation that shifts from being a strategic bombing campaign to one that will support, monitor and sustain the new political agreement that is currently being negotiated based on the UN resolution," he said.

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People flee Sanaa with their belongings, fearing renewed air strikes, along a street damaged by an a …

Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, an ally of the Shi'ite Houthis, welcomed the declared end of air strikes and called for renewed political dialogue to guide the country out of turmoil.

"We hope this will mark the end of the option of force, violence and bloodshed and a start for reviewing accounts and correcting mistakes," Saleh said.

Although the nearly month-old campaign has been waged by Sunni Arab allies against the Shi'ite Houthis, the Saudi ambassador said the dispute was about foreign policy differences, not religious sectarianism.

"It is a foreign policy problem. We have a problem with their (Iran's) foreign policy," he said.

"When we deal with Israel, for example, we have a problem with their policy. But we don't have a problem with their religion. Our dealings with Iran is with their foreign policy."

(Additional reporting Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Bloomberg Video
French Authorities on Alert as Terrorist Attack Thwarted

PARIS (AP) — An Islamic extremist with an arsenal of loaded guns was prevented from opening fire on churchgoers only because he accidentally shot himself in the leg, French officials said Wednesday.

The 24-year-old computer science student, who was also suspected in the death of a young woman whose body was found on Sunday shortly before his arrest, had been flagged as a risk for intent to travel to Syria but there had been no specific reason to open a judicial investigation, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the suspect — an Algerian who had lived in France for several years — was arrested in Paris Sunday after he apparently shot himself by accident and called for an ambulance.

He was waiting outside his apartment building for first aid when police arrived. They followed a trail of blood to his car, which contained loaded guns, and notes about potential targets.

A search of his apartment in southeastern Paris turned up more weapons including three Kalashnikov assault rifles along with phones and computers that police used to establish that he'd been in communication with someone "who could have been in Syria," Molins said at a news conference.

This person "explicitly asked him to target a church," Molins said, declining to answer questions about the investigation into what he termed "an imminent attack."

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French Prime Minister Manuel Vall, left, and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, address the medias …

Police also found Arabic-language material that mentioned al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in the man's apartment, Molins said. There was no immediate evidence that the suspect had direct ties to any organized groups, said a French security official who was not authorized to publicly release details.

Police arrested one person believed to be acquainted with the suspect Wednesday evening in the town of Saint-Dizier, Molins said, but gave no further details.

Aurelie Chatelain, a 32-year-old Frenchwoman visiting in Paris, was found shot to death in her car on Sunday morning. The security official said Chatelain appeared to have been killed at random and ballistics evidence linked her death to the suspect.

The suspect was treated for a leg wound and remained hospitalized on Wednesday.

An attack on a church would be a new target in France, where Jewish sites have been under increased protection since the 2012 attack on a Jewish school and the killings at a kosher supermarket this year.

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Workers set up a banner showing a portrait of Aurelie Chatelain on the front of the city hall of Cau …

Extremists have targeted Christians in the Middle East. A video released on Sunday showed Islamic State militants in Libya killing captive Ethiopian Christians.

"The terrorists target France to divide us," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Wednesday.

France has been on edge since the Jan. 7-9 attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen. In that case, at least two of the gunmen had been flagged to French intelligence — and the third had been recently released from prison after serving a sentence involving his ties to Islamic extremists — but surveillance was called off months before the attack.

The thwarted attack was announced hours before Cazeneuve met with executives from top Internet companies, including Google and Twitter, to talk about the government's plan to increase online surveillance and block jihadi propaganda.

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Associated Press writer Greg Keller in Paris contributed to this report.

A rocket prepares to launch in 2009 at the the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia where an experimental solid-fuel rocket went off trajectory after being launched on April 22, 2015 (AFP Photo/Stephane Corvaja)

Moscow (AFP) - A surface-to-air missile crashed shortly after being launched in northern Russia on Wednesday, Russian news agencies said, in a failed test that will be seen as an embarrassment for the country's military forces.

An official speaking on condition of anonymity initially told AFP the incident had involved an experimental military rocket, but state-owned weapons manufacturer Almaz-Antey was later quoted as saying it was an Antey-2500 missile that fell back to the ground.

The test was meant to "give an assessment of the manoeuvrability of a modernised missile of the surface-to-air Antey-2500 missile system," the firm's spokesman told Russian news agencies.

The missile "veered off-course and self-destructed" shortly after its launch, the spokesman said, with debris falling within the security zone of the Plesetsk military cosmodrome.

The Antey-2500 missile system is an upgraded version of Russia's sophisticated S-300 air defence system. Russia in February notably offered to deliver the new missiles to Iran.

Regional authorities said in a statement the crash happened seven kilometres (four miles) from the Plesetsk military launch pad in the northern Arkhangelsk region, without giving details of the device that was launched.

An official from the Arkhangelsk region had earlier told AFP that a military rocket had crashed without causing injuries or damages.

The Russian space agency declined comment. The defence ministry provided no immediate comment.

President Vladimir Putin has made modernising the army a top priority of his 15-year rule, with the armed forces acquiring new missiles and other weapons after years of post-Soviet neglect.

Russia's space industry has suffered a series of setbacks in recent years but accidents at the Plesetsk military cosmodrome are believed to be very rare.

Amid huge sensitivities surrounding Russia's military programme, Moscow appeared to enforce a virtual blackout on the crash.

Wochit
Saudi-led Coalition Bombs Yemen Despite Calling Off Air Campaign

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Hours after Saudi Arabia declared an end to its coalition's nearly monthlong air campaign in Yemen, new airstrikes Wednesday hit Iran-backed militants and their allies in two cities, and the rebels said they would welcome U.N.-led peace talks in the conflict that has killed more than 900 people.

The continued airstrikes suggested that the U.S.-backed offensive, aimed at restoring Yemen's internationally recognized president, was entering a new phase in which the Saudi-led military action will be scaled back but not halted completely.

Air raids struck positions held by the rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies in the southern port of Aden and the central city of Taiz, Yemeni officials said. Fighting continued in both areas between the rebels and supporters of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a close U.S. ally who fled Yemen on March 25.

The capital of Sanaa was calm, however, giving residents their most peaceful night in almost four weeks. In the evening, thousands of pro-Houthi demonstrators marched and vowed they would never submit to what they described as "Saudi-American aggression."

The Shiite rebels are backed by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, an autocrat who ruled the impoverished but strategic country for three decades until he was removed amid a 2011 Arab Spring uprising. His military forces have aided the rebels who advanced from the north and control much of Yemen, including Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its Gulf allies began the air campaign March 26, aimed at crushing the Houthis and allied military units loyal to Saleh. The Saudis believe the rebels are tools for Iran to take control of Yemen. Iran has provided political and humanitarian support to the Houthis, but both Tehran and the rebels deny it has armed them.

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Shiite rebels known as Houthis gather during a protest to denounce the Saudi aggression in Sanaa, Ye …

The airstrikes in Taiz hit the rebels as they gathered at a military headquarters they control near the old airport southeast of the city, officials said. Also targeted was Aden, where warplanes blasted rebel forces in outlying districts.

Street fighting continued in both cities, especially Taiz, where officials said pro-government forces control most of the city, and dozens were killed on both sides. In Aden, rebels fired mortars, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists.

At least 944 people were killed and 3,500 wounded since the coalition airstrikes began March 26, the World Health Organization said. It also has created an escalating humanitarian crisis, with dwindling supplies of food, water and medicine.

The rebels and their allies have lost little ground, and Hadi remains in exile in Saudi Arabia. Aden, where he had established a temporary capital before fleeing, is gripped by fierce fighting. Al-Qaida's powerful local affiliate has exploited the chaos to seize the southeastern port city of Mukalla.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia declared "Decisive Storm" over and announced the start of a more limited military campaign aimed at preventing the rebels from operating.

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Shiite rebels known as Houthis hold up their weapons as they chant slogans during a protest to denou …

At a news conference in Riyadh, coalition spokesman Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asiri said the heavy airstrikes would be scaled down, but did not confirm whether they would stop altogether. He said the goals of the new operation are to prevent Houthi rebels from "targeting civilians or changing realities on the ground."

Riad Kahwaji, director of the Dubai-based Institute of Near East And Gulf Military Analysis, said that if there were any suspicious military movements, "the coalition will attack it."

In Washington, Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir said his country would continue responding to Houthi attacks despite the change in mission, and he suggested strikes coming within hours to head off a three-pronged attack by militants on Aden.

"We will not allow them to take Yemen by force," he said at a news conference.

Al-Jubeir criticized the Houthis for talking about mediation while persisting in attacks and expressed doubt they would adhere to any cease-fire or power-sharing deal after violating dozens of previous agreements.

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A Shiite rebel known as a Houthi, second left, holds a poster of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasr …

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he "took note" of Saudi Arabia's announcement and expressed concern at the renewed fighting. He welcomed the Saudi-led coalition's announcement it supports a quick resumption of the political process and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Ban said he is waiting for "positive responses" from key parties to his choice for a new special envoy to Yemen — widely reported to be the current U.N. Ebola chief, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

Houthi leaders were conciliatory in an official statement Wednesday, calling for a resumption of dialogue and any efforts under the auspices of the U.N. that lead to a peaceful compromise. It was a far cry from a defiant speech by rebel leader Abdul-Malek al-Houthi on Sunday, when he vowed to not surrender and rejected U.N. efforts.

"We welcome any United Nations efforts that are on the side of peaceful solutions," Houthi spokesman Mohamed Abdul-Salam said in the statement. The return to talks was a key demand of a Security Council resolution that calls on Yemenis, especially the Houthis, to end the violence and return to the U.N.-led talks.

Iran welcomed the Saudi decision to halt "Decisive Storm" and launch a new one called "Renewal of Hope."

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Shiite rebels known as Houthis hold up their weapons as they chant slogans during a protest to denou …

"We believe this was a positive step," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, adding that "political cooperation" by all parties was needed to resolve the Yemen crisis.

The U.S. also welcomed the conclusion of the Saudi-led operation, saying it looked forward to a shift from military operations to a quick resumption of negotiations.

"We strongly urge all Yemeni parties, in particular the Houthis and their supporters, to take this opportunity to return to these negotiations as part of the political dialogue," National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said. "The Yemeni people deserve the opportunity to hold a peaceful debate about their new constitution, to participate in a credible and safe constitutional referendum, and to vote in free and fair national elections."

In an apparent goodwill gesture Wednesday, the rebels released Defense Minister Mahmoud al-Subaihi, as well as Hadi's brother and a third military commander after holding them for nearly a month. Airport officials said a plane arrived in Sanaa to take al-Subaihi, Hadi's brother and two army commanders to Riyadh.

The move could reflect an imminent political deal between Hadi and the rebels and their allies.

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A Shiite rebel known as Houthi puts a banner on his weapon which in Arabic reads,"Allah is the …

Also on Wednesday, Yemen security officials said a likely U.S. drone strike killed seven suspected al-Qaida fighters in the eastern part of the country. They said the militants were traveling by car in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, where al-Qaida has recently made advances and struck deals with tribesmen.

The Interior Ministry said suspected al-Qaida gunmen on a motorcycle killed a security officer in a drive-by shooting.

The chaos in Yemen has forced the U.S. to scale back drone strikes on al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the local affiliate is known. The group has carried out a number of failed attacks on the U.S. and claimed the deadly attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo earlier this year.

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Rohan reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Aya Batrawy in Najran, Saudi Arabia, Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.

The attacks come hours after Saudi Arabia announced an end to its coalition's nearly monthlong military campaign.
Iran-backed militants hit

CNBC Videos
Influenza hits poultry producers

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working on a vaccine to counter a deadly strain of bird flu, as losses to poultry producers mount.

A pure "seed strain" would target the H5N2 virus — which has already cost Midwest turkey and chicken producers over 7 million birds since early March — as well as some other highly pathogenic viruses in the H5 family that have been detected in other parts of North America. If the USDA decides the vaccine is necessary to stop avian influenza, it will provide that seed strain to drug manufacturers.

The process, though, is fraught with questions about which birds would get the vaccine, how it might affect exports and whether it would be effective against the rapidly spreading strain.

WHY PRODUCERS WANT A VACCINE

USDA officials say the H5N2 virus could be a problem for the poultry industry for several years. And they say the virus could reappear this fall when the wild waterfowl that are believed to carry it fly south for the winter. Another concern is that it could spread to big poultry-producing states in the East.

While government agencies and producers would much rather see tight biosecurity and other current strategies succeed, they want to have another tool available, said Dr. T.J. Myers, an associate deputy administrator for veterinary services with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

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In this 2012 photo provided by Bethany Hahn is a flock of turkeys at a Minnesota poultry farm. Midwe …

WHERE THE VACCINE STANDS

The USDA's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, is developing the seed strain, which is essentially a pure virus sample that could be the foundation for producing an effective vaccine. The center's director, Dr. David Swayne, said it has already gone through a couple of rounds of lab testing, and that animal experiments will begin in early May to determine whether it's an effective strain to use. If those tests are successful and the USDA decides to put a vaccine into production, it would turn to the private sector to make it.

WHAT IT WOULD COST?

Dr. John Clifford, the USDA's chief veterinary officer, said it's not clear how much a vaccine would add to the cost of producing birds, but doesn't expect it would be much. It might be used mainly on the more expensive birds, such as those used for breeding, he said.

For turkey producers, the price of the vaccine could be minor compared to the cost of losing entire flocks, according to Steve Olson, executive director of the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota. But a vaccine might be too expensive for the broiler chicken industry, where profits per bird are small.

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FILE - In this Nov. 16, 2009 file photo, chickens stand in their cages at a farm near Stuart, Iowa. …

WHY THE USDA MIGHT DECIDE AGAINST A VACCINE

Introducing a vaccine raises a lot of questions, Myers said, including which poultry would get it, in what kind of settings, whether it would be effective in stopping the disease and potential negative effects on poultry exports.

James Sumner, president of the Georgia-based USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, said some countries might regard vaccine use as a reason to bar imports from the U.S. The vaccine could mask any viruses that poultry are carrying, because tests for the disease look for antibodies — the same antibodies that vaccines trigger a body to produce, he said.

Dr. Kyoungjin Yoon, an avian influenza expert at Iowa State University, said human experience shows flu vaccines don't always match well with viruses in circulation. Vaccine-induced immunity could also slow the detection of outbreaks, Yoon said. One of the main symptoms is that flocks start dying off quickly.

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Associated Press reporter David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.