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Story highlights
- Saudi diplomats exerted 'massive' pressure on U.N. to be removed from blacklist
- Place on list was result of Saudi-led coalition's bombing of Yemen
New York (CNN)Saudi Arabia and Muslim allies applied huge pressure on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to be removed from a blacklist for killing children in Yemen, a U.N. official tells CNN.
The official says Saudi Arabia made a threat of a "total rupture" in relations between the Kingdom and the U.N., placing in doubt hundreds of millions of dollars in financial contributions to U.N. humanitarian agencies and causes.
There were also suggestions clerics in Saudi Arabia could meet to issue an anti-U.N. fatwa, declaring the organization "anti-Muslim."
The pressure was "massive ... beyond anything ever seen," the official said.
A Saudi-led coalition carried out a widespread bombing campaign of Yemen in 2015.
'Blatant pandering'
A spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon confirmed that the coalition had been removed from the blacklist, saying it had agreed to a joint review with Saudi officials of the cases and numbers of casualties mentioned in the report.
Human rights organization Amnesty International described the U.N.'s actions as "blatant pandering" to Saudi Arabia that "undermines all of the U.N.'s work to protect children caught up in war."
The U.N. official said the pressure came in the form of diplomatic phone calls and visits by U.N. diplomats at the organization's headquarters in New York.
A U.N. report said the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for 60% of almost 2,000 children killed in Yemen in 2015.
'Every word stands'
A previous U.N. report claimed that the Saudi-led coalition was responsible for 60% of the 1,953 children recorded as killed or maimed in the conflict in 2015. Those casualties have risen sixfold since the previous year.
"Every word stands and we stand by the figures and the information contained in the report," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday.
"It paints a horrific picture of the suffering of Yemenese civilians, especially the Yemeni children."
In an open letter to Ban, Human Rights Watch and 19 other organizations called on the U.N. to immediately return the Saudi-led coalition to the "list of shame."