Saudi denies UN claims over child rights blacklist

Saudi Arabia says no threats were used on UN to remove Arab-led coalition fighting in Yemen from child rights blacklist.

Some 6,000 people, about half of them civilians, have been killed in Yemen since last March, according to the UN

Saudi Arabia has denied threatening a cut-off of humanitarian funding to pressure the United Nations into removing the Arab-led coalition fighting in Yemen from a blacklist of child rights violators.

"We did not use threats or intimidation and we did not talk about funding," Saudi Ambassador Abdullah al-Mouallimi told reporters on Thursday.

The UN had blacklisted the coalition after concluding in a report released last Thursday that it was responsible for 60 percent of the 785 children killed in Yemen last year.

But on Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that the coalition would be scratched from the list pending a joint review with the alliance.

"Pending the conclusions of the joint review, the secretary-general removes the listing of the coalition in the report's annex," Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.