(VOVworld) - Yemini Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin on Monday rejected Iran’s offer to mediate the crisis in Yemen and urged Houthi rebels to surrender.

Yassin said on the sidelines of an Arab-Turkish economic meeting in Kuwait city on Monday that Yemen would not accept any mediation efforts coming from Iran.

He said Yemen’s exiled government will not accept negotiations unless the Houthis and the forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh lay down arms and withdraw from cities and villages of Yemen including Sana and Aden.

According to Minister Yassin, Gulf countries will convene a meeting to discuss plans for Yemen’s post-war reconstruction but no date for the meeting has been set.