United States intensifies its offer to stop the war in Yemen
United States intensifies its offer to stop the war in Yemen
WASHINGTON. The Trump administration is accelerating efforts to stop the war in Yemen, a move that diplomats and US officials said is fueled by concern over the humanitarian cost and the deterioration of congressional support for Saudi Arabia. Saudi intensified by the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made coordinated calls this week for a ceasefire in Yemen, where the conflict between a Saudi-led coalition and the allied Houthi militants of Iran has caused the worst humanitarian disaster in the country. world.
The new momentum of the administration reflects the frustrations of the three-year war. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been unable to deliver a devastating blow on the battlefield to the Houthi insurgents, but have caused international condemnation with operations such as the August air strike on a busload of schoolchildren on a road trip. studies. More than 40 students were killed.
These frustrations were compounded by the October 2 assassination of Mr. Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, which led to a widespread call for a reevaluation of the United States' ties with Riyadh.
Messrs. Mattis and Pompeo are pressing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help push forward the peace talks mediated by the United Nations in the coming weeks.
"We have to move towards a peace effort here, and we can not say that we will do it in the future, we have to be doing this for the next 30 days," Mattis said Tuesday at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington. .
Martin Griffiths, the US special envoy in Yemen, has been working closely with the Trump administration to start peace talks.
Behind the scenes, senior military officials and diplomats from the United States have been warning privately to Saudi Arabia and the United States. That growing bipartisan outrage in Congress over the war is making it increasingly difficult for President Trump to back Saudi Arabia, a senior diplomat said.
US officials also warned that Democrats could take control of the US House of Representatives in midterm elections on Tuesday, a move that could make it easier for Congress to reduce US military support for Saudi Arabia. and the United States, said the diplomat.
"The pressure of Congress, that is the heart of the matter," said the diplomat.
Washington has important interests in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer and one of the main buyers of US arms. Mr. Trump is working closely with Saudi Arabia to contain Iran's influence in the Middle East, a key priority for the United States, and in a new plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
I know. UU They provide the Saudi-led coalition with limited military support for the war in Yemen. US aircraft refuel to Saudi Arabia and the USA UU fighter jets carry out air strikes in Yemen that, according to the UN, have killed thousands of civilians. I know. UU They provide Gulf allies with limited intelligence on the battlefield and precision guided weapons.
US lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully to cut US support for the war in Yemen. That tentative Saudi support in Congress suffered another blow with the death of Mr. Khashoggi.
Mr. Trump denounced the murder of Mr. Khashoggi and requested a full investigation. But he also said he would try to protect aspects of relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, in particular billions of dollars in arms sales linked to manufacturing jobs in the United States.
In contrast, some lawmakers have threatened to limit or stop the sale of arms in Saudi Arabia, efforts that were rejected in the past. Five Republican senators wrote to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, asking him to indefinitely suspend talks with the Saudis on civil nuclear energy in light of the Khashoggi affair.
In September, Mr. Pompeo supported US military support. UU To Saudi Arabia on the objections of staff members after advisers warned that a court could endanger more than $ 2 billion in arms sales to US allies in the Gulf.
Mr. Pompeo reinforced that point on Wednesday.
"We really have a responsibility to the United States, to the American people, to ensure that we have a good relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," Pompeo said in an interview on Fox News.
But in his statement on Yemen, issued on Tuesday night, Mr. Pompeo said: "The time is now for the cessation of hostilities."
When asked on Wednesday if Mr. Khashoggi's death hits the US UU More influence to address problems such as the war in Yemen, the spokesman of the State Department, Robert Palladino, said that "the two are not related."
Stephen Seche, who served as the US ambassador to Yemen from 2007 to 2010, agreed that "many external factors" are influencing the White House's more activist approach to Yemen.
He cited the sentiment in Congress, the potential changes after the US elections and the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi.
Mr. Seche, now at the Institute of the Arab Gulf States in Washington, welcomed the statements of Pompeo and Mattis, but quickly added: "I could argue that I wish I had seen it before in this three and a half year war." .
Supporting Mr. Griffiths' effort to end the conflict will take more than statements, he said. "That's going to take a little bit of skin in the game on our part."
In Yemen, the United States warned on October 23 that half of the country's population, or around 14 million people, face pre-famine conditions. The conflict, which began in March 2015 after a Saudi offensive in response to the capture of the capital by the Houthis in San'a, killed more than 10,000 people, many of them civilians.
Write to Dion Nissenbaum in dion.nissenbaum@wsj.com
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