Today, the Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member States concluded ‎their 41st GCC Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The meeting issued ‎the following statement:‎

‎"Today, the GCC Ministerial Council held its 41st extraordinary ministerial meeting, chaired by ‎Qatari Foreign Minister Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah, the Chairman of the GCC ‎current session. The following member state representatives took part: Prince Abdulaziz bin ‎Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; ‎UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan; Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh ‎Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah; Bahraini Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmad Al ‎Khalifa; Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs Yousef bin Alawi bin Abdullah and GCC Secretary ‎General Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani.‎

The Ministerial Council followed the dangerous developments in Yemen and the outcome of the ‎unfortunate incidents and terrorist operations, carried out by the Houthis and their supporters, ‎which resulted in undermining the political process in the Republic of Yemen based on the GGC ‎initiative and its executive mechanism and the failure of the comprehensive national dialogue ‎outputs and crippling the peaceful transitional process in a way that contradicts the best interests ‎of Yemen and its people.‎

Recalling the decisions taken by the GCC leaders at the 35th session of the GCC Supreme ‎Council held in Doha, December 2014, and the statement issued by the GCC Ministers of ‎Interior at a meeting held in Jeddah, in September 2014, the Ministerial Council expresses its ‎continued support for the Yemeni people and strongly condemns these terrorist acts; including ‎infringing on the constitutional legitimacy, storming the presidency palace, abducting Dr. Ahmed ‎Awad bin Mubarak, director of the Office of the President of the Republic of Yemen, who is ‎also Secretary General of the National Dialogue Conference, and attempting to assassinate Prime ‎Minister Khalid Mahfouz Bahah.‎

The council also condemns the use of violence by the Houthis against the state, its institutions ‎and citizens in addition to their expansion at the expense of other areas and components of ‎Yemen society, a step that undermines Yemen's security, stability and unity.‎

The GCC considers what happened in Sana’a on Tuesday, January 20, 2015, a coup against ‎legitimacy. In the event that the Houthis withdraw from the presidential palace and the ‎residences of the president and the prime minister, lift the siege of the presidential palace, release ‎Dr. Mubarak, and normalize the security situation in Sana’a and return government institutions to ‎state control. The GCC Ministerial Council will send an envoy of the GCC Secretary General to ‎communicate with all political forces and components of Yemen in order to complete the ‎implementation of the GCC initiative and its executive mechanism's provisions and outputs of a ‎comprehensive national dialogue.‎

The GCC confirms that Yemen's security is an integral part of the GCC’s national security and ‎Yemen's stability and unity is a top priority for the GCC countries, stressing, in this regard, that ‎the GCC will take the required measures to protect its member states' security, stability and vital ‎interests in Yemen.‎

The GCC confirms its support for the constitutional legitimacy of Yemen represented in Yemeni ‎President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and rejects all actions taken to impose a status quo by ‎force and try to change the components and nature of the Yemeni society, calling on the Houthis ‎to stop the use of force, withdraw from all the regions under their control, hand over the seized ‎weapons from the military and security institutions, and engage in the political process.‎

The council called upon all parties and political forces to put the interest of Yemen as top ‎priority, work to complete the implementation of the political process, and avoid Yemen sliding ‎further into chaos and violence, including increasing the suffering of the Yemeni people.‎

The Ministerial Council stresses the need to implement the Yemen-relevant resolutions from the ‎U.N. Security Council, as what is happening in Yemen now represents a threat to international ‎peace and security in the region and the whole world.‎

The Ministerial Council will continue following up the latest developments in Yemen."‎