UPDATE - Saudi king meets UK foreign secretary in Riyadh

UPDATES WITH UK GOVT STATEMENT

RIYADH (AA) – Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz held talks with British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in Riyadh on Monday, according to the official SPA news agency.

The discussions tackled ways of boosting bilateral cooperation and regional development, SPA said, without giving any further details.

The British government, for its part, said Hunt’s visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates was meant to press for an end to bloodshed in Yemen.

“The human cost of war in Yemen is incalculable: with millions displaced, famine and disease rife and years of bloodshed, the only solution is now a political decision to set aside arms and pursue peace,” Hunt said in statements ahead of his visit.

“Britain has a unique position, both as pen-holder at the UN Security Council and as a key influencer in the region, so today I am travelling to the Gulf to demand that all sides commit to this process,” he said.

“We are witnessing a man-made humanitarian catastrophe on our watch: now is the window to make a difference, and to get behind both the UN peace process and current UK efforts in the Security Council.”

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a devastating air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

Regarding the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the British government said Hunt “will call on the Saudi authorities to do more to deliver justice and accountability for the Khashoggi family”.

“It is clearly unacceptable that the full circumstances behind his murder still remain unclear. We encourage the Saudi authorities to co-operate fully with the Turkish investigation into his death, so that we deliver justice for his family and the watching world.”

On Sunday, the Saudi monarch held talks with U.K. envoy Simon McDonald on bilateral ties between Riyadh and London.

McDonald’s visit was the first by a senior British official to Saudi Arabia since Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month.

Khashoggi, a Saudi national and columnist for The Washington Post, was killed Oct. 2 inside the diplomatic facility.

After weeks of denying involvement, Saudi Arabia admitted that Khashoggi had been killed at the consulate but claimed the Saudi royal family had no prior knowledge of a plot to murder him.