"We have been informed that there are meetings, at American request, and that a private American plane carried the Houthis to Muscat," Rajeh Badi, a spokesman for Yemen's government in exile told Reuters by telephone from the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
That is puzzling for a country in which public cinemas have been banned since the 1980s.In 2011 three young film-makers were detained in prison for posting online a documentary about poverty in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Women have written the most acclaimed Saudi novel of recent years, "Girls of Riyadh", and directed the first feature film made in the country, "Wadjda", about a girl in Riyadh who dreams of owning a bicycle to race against a neighbouring boy.Across the board, Saudi women are pushing for changes to laws in a country where sharia law is imposed by all-male courts.
Intent on offering his condolences and meeting Abdullah's successor in person, Obama led an exceptionally high-powered delegation to Riyadh that included former secretaries of state, past presidential candidates and senior military commanders.
So it was that in 1995, Abdullah's national guard in Riyadh came face to face with terrorism, when a key building used by Americans providing military training support was blown up.
Riyadh has signalled in the past that it might seek nuclear warheads from its ally Pakistan if Tehran were to develop them.
As is common in such awkward situations, the outward trappings of the relationship appear undisturbed, for now at least, as shown by Barack Obama's homage to Abdullah in Riyadh on Tuesday.
It was hoped that Abdullah's birth in Riyadh would end the enmity between the ousted northern Hail emirate and the newly emerging Saudi kingdom.
The JSi bid was featured in a December report to parliament that also gave details of a memorandum of understanding on judicial cooperation signed by the UK and Saudi Arabian justice ministers in Riyadh in September.
Another issue for Salman will be managing Saudi relations with the US, the source of disappointment in Riyadh and impetuous moves by Abdullah in the last year after Obama sought to negotiate a nuclear deal and a wider rapprochement with Iran as well as failing to act militarily against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, whose overthrow the Saudis are still seeking.
Riyadh allowed US forces to use its bases to control operations but refused to let US planes take off on strikes.
