Saudi Arabia and its allies have asked UN Security Council members for a resolution imposing an arms embargo on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Diplomats said on Thursday that members of the Gulf Co-ordination Council want the resolution to be militarily enforceable under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter.
The GCC members also presented the Security Council president with a letter explaining that their airstrikes targeting military installations held by the Houthi rebels are in response to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's request this week for immediate aid as the rebels closed in.
One diplomat who attended a meeting between the GCC members and ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France said the Arab allies stressed that an arms embargo would block arms only to the Houthi rebels and not to Yemen's government.
The diplomat said the members do not want a repeat of Libya, whose internationally recognised government has to ask a UN sanctions committee for exemptions to that country's arms embargo when it wants to obtain weapons.
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The Gulf members also suggested that more members of the Houthis face financial sanctions.
In addition, "We're asking for (Houthi) withdrawal from Sanaa, withdrawal from the other provinces," Saudi Arabia's UN ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi told reporters after the meeting.
The Security Council last month unanimously adopted a resolution demanding that the rebels immediately relinquish control of Yemen's government and engage "in good faith" in UN-led peace talks.
That resolution, which was not under Chapter 7, was the council's first on Yemen since the current crisis began.
Since then, the Houthis have swept south from Sanaa, the capital, and taken over much of the Arab world's poorest country.
The GCC includes Yemen's neighbours Saudi Arabia and Oman as well as Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates.
