New Yemen VP says he hopes to avert Saudi invasion

Arab military exercises planned for Saudi Arabia have raised speculation that Riyadh is considering land operations in Yemen, after three weeks of air strikes that failed to halt advances by Shi'ite fighters now in control of most of the country.

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi named Bahah, a former prime minister and diplomat, as his deputy this week in an attempt to widen support for his government, now exiled to Saudi Arabia since the Iran-backed fighters, known as Houthis, seized the capital and launched a lightning advance on the south.

Bahah is one of the few figures in Yemen whose popularity crosses regional and sectarian lines. Speaking in the Saudi capital Riyadh at his first news conference since taking the post, he said: "We are still hoping that there is no ground campaign announced with the air campaign."

With the Houthi advance showing no sign of slowing, the prospect is growing that Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies could launch a land war in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula. The leading Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim powers in the Gulf, Saudi Arabiaand Iran, are already backing opposing sides in proxy conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

The United Nations says the latest Yemen conflict has already killed 600 people, wounded 2,200 and displaced 100,000.