Washington – Aden:
US President Donald Trump entered directly into the rapid developments in Yemen, following a phone call he made, on Sunday, with the head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, focusing on the recent field progress of the Houthi group near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Four informed sources told Reuters that the call witnessed a discussion of the accelerating military escalation on the western coast of Yemen, where Al-Alimi asked the US administration to provide military support to the Yemeni government to confront the Iranian-backed Houthis, who recently took control of strategic sites close to the vital waterway, which exacerbated international concerns about the security of global navigation.
However, two sources – one Yemeni and the other Western – confirmed that the US President did not make any direct pledge to provide military support to the Yemeni government during the talks, at a time when no official comment has been issued yet from the White House or the Yemeni Ministry of Information regarding the contact details.
This diplomatic move comes in conjunction with a field escalation taking place on the Yemeni fronts, amid the Houthis’ attempts to strengthen their influence on the Red Sea coast, which prompted government forces and the forces supporting them to reorganize their military operations on several fronts, in addition to previous reports indicating that American officials made contact with Houthi representatives in the Sultanate of Oman to contain the escalation and protect international trade and energy movement.
