&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Yemen called Trump for US military support in fight against Houthis: Official")
The government of Yemen is seeking US military support in its fight against the Houthis, revealed a senior Yemeni official as the Iranian-backed rebels rapidly expand their control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and threaten another critical Middle East waterway for global energy supplies.
Yemen’s President, Rashad al-Alimi, conveyed the request for US assistance to President Donald Trump in a call this week, Abdullah Al-Alimi Bawazir, vice president of the Yemeni Leadership Council, told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Replying to a query on reports of Trump making no direct pledge of military support, Bawazir said he was unaware that the request had been rejected.
He said that Trump understands the danger because of the Houthis and added, “We hope and expect more support for the Yemeni government in the face of the Houthi militias.”
“We do not ask the American soldiers to actually go into war on our behalf,” he said. “And we don’t really request that they do nothing.”
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Yemen looks forward to “mutual coordination on the intel and security fields,” said Bawazir, who requested that the US enhance the Yemeni government’s own military capacity to take on the threat.
“The aerial campaigns are important,” he said. “But supporting the Yemeni government and forces on the ground is indeed a guarantor to end the danger of those militias.”
Yemen has been embroiled in conflict since 2014, when the Houthis drove the government out of the capital city, Sanaa, and ignited a regional proxy war, with Saudi Arabia supporting the exiled government against the Iranian-backed armed rebels.
In their latest military campaign, the Houthis have advanced along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline with the aim of cutting off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which has become a critical waterway for Saudi Arabia to transport oil after Iran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia, a critical US ally in the Middle East, has urged Washington to take military action against the Houthis, who escalated their actions by launching an attack on the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
So far, US support has been limited to providing intelligence and targeting data.
Trump has said that the Houthis, which the US designates as a terrorist organisation, don’t want to fight the US and “they don’t want us to go after them.”
“They’ve called and they’ve talked to us, and they don’t want us to. They would much prefer not having us involved, and they’re letting most ships go through,” Trump said.
