US weighs deeper military role in Yemen
UNITED STATES: Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has asked the White House to lift Obama-era restrictions on US military support for Persian Gulf states engaged in a protracted civil war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to senior Trump administration officials.
In a memo this month to national security adviser H R McMaster, Mattis said ‘‘limited support’’ for Yemen operations being conducted by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – including a planned Emirati offensive to retake a key Red Sea port – would help combat a ‘‘common threat’’.
Approval of the request would mark a significant policy shift. US military activity in Yemen until now has been confined mainly to counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda’s affiliate there, with limited indirect backing for Gulf state efforts in a 2-year-old war that has yielded significant civilian casualties.
It would also be a clear signal of the administration’s intention to move more aggressively against Iran. The Trump White House, in far stronger terms than its predecessor, has echoed Saudi and Emirati charges that Iran is training, arming and directing the Shi’ite Houthis in a proxy war to increase its regional clout against the Gulf’s Sunni monarchies.
The administration is in the midst of a larger review of overall Yemen policy that is not expected to be completed until next month.
But the immediate question, addressed by Mattis’ memo and tentatively slated to come before the principal’s committee of senior national security aides this week, is whether to provide support for a proposed UAE-led operation to push the Houthis from the port of Hodeida, through which humani- tarian aid and rebel supplies pass.
The Pentagon memo does not recommend agreeing to every element of the Emirati request. A proposal to provide American Special Operations forces on the ground on the Red Sea coast ‘‘was not part of the request [Mattis] is making,’’ said a senior administration official.
This official and several others said Mattis and his advisers have asked for removal of President Barack Obama’s prohibitions, which would enable the military to support Emirati operations against the Houthis with surveillance and intelligence, refuelling, and operational planning assistance, without asking for case-bycase White House approval.
A similar Emirati proposal for help in attacking Hodeida was rejected late last year by the Obama administration, on the grounds that Emirati ships and warplanes, US Special Operations forces and Yemeni government troops were unlikely to succeed in dislodging the entrenched, wellarmed rebels and could worsen the humanitarian situation.
The effort was seen as sure to escalate a war that the US and the United Nations have been trying to stop.
Some advisers to President Donald Trump share those same concerns, the senior official said. ‘‘There has been no decision yet as to whether [the restrictions] will be lifted.
‘‘There is certainly broad disagreement across our government.’’
While acknowledging that some might see ending the limits as ‘‘a green light for direct involvement in a major war . . . we can’t judge yet what the [review] results will be,’’ the official said, adding that the limits could be modified, removed or left in place.
– Washington Post