China has signalled its support for Yemen's government, which is fighting an Iran-allied militia, on the first day of a visit to Saudi Arabia by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will also be heading to Tehran later in the week.
A Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign last year against the Iranian-allied Shi'ite Houthi movement in Yemen, which has seized the capital, Sanaa. The government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi is now based in the southern city of Aden.
Riyadh sees the Houthis as a proxy for bitter regional rival Iran to expand its influence in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation. The Houthis deny this and say they are waging a revolution against a corrupt government and Gulf Arab powers beholden to the West.
A growing diplomatic dispute between Riyadh and Tehran, triggered by mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric, has damaged the outlook for any resolution to the conflict in Yemen.Saudi Arabia and China said in a statement on Wednesday that the two countries affirmed their support for the unity, independence and sovereignty of Yemen. The statement was released by China's Foreign Ministry after Xi met Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz in Riyadh on Tuesday.
