The United Nations said on Monday it had removed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen from a child rights blacklist pending a joint review by the world body and the coalition of the cases of child deaths and injuries.

The U.N. report on children and armed conflict – released last Thursday – said the coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year, killing 510 and wounding 667, and half the attacks on schools and hospitals.

Following a complaint by Saudi Arabia, however, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon agreed to a joint review by the world body and the coalition of the cases cited in the annual report of states and armed groups that violate children's rights in war.

The Saudis and their allies have been very effective in getting their way at the U.N. on Yemen, and they have been helped in this by the reliable diplomatic support that the U.S., Britain, and others have provided to them. When the Netherlands pushed for an independent inquiry into war crimes and abuses in Yemen by all sides last year, the Saudis were able to scuttle the Dutch resolution with tacit U.S. backing and propose instead that the Saudi-backed Yemeni government-in-exile would be responsible for investigating the coalition's wrongdoing.