US affirms continuous support for Arab coalition in Yemen

abu dhabi — The United States wants to continue support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s war and will remain engaged in efforts to combat Iranian influence and militancy in the Arab state, a State Department official said on Sunday.

The US Senate last month voted to advance a resolution to end US military support, which includes arms sales and intelligence sharing, for the Arab coalition that intervened in 2015 against the Iranian-aligned Houthis to restore the internationally recognised government.

“There are pressures in our system ... to either withdraw from the conflict or discontinue our support of the coalition, which we are strongly opposed to on the administration side,” said Timothy Lenderking, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Arabian Gulf Affairs. “We do believe that the support for the coalition is necessary. It sends a wrong message if we discontinue our support,” he told a security forum in the UAE.

The US official’s reassurances of continued support comes as Sweden hosts the first UN-led peace talks in two years between the warring parties. Lenderking said peace talks launched last week were a “vital first step” in ending the conflict.

He said there were no illusions the process would be easy, but that there were signs of constructive talks and that Washington wants concrete results from the meetings focused on confidence-building measures and a transitional governing body. “Looking down the road we seek a stable and unified Yemen that fosters rather than drains regional and global stability.”

“There is no place in a future Yemen for an Iranian-backed threat to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and vital international economic quarters,” he said, adding that the coalition was also combatting Al Qaeda and Daesh militants in Yemen.

Lenderking said that experts forecast there could be 1 million former combatants that need to be disarmed once a peace deal is reached, requiring security sector reform as well as Timothy Lenderking,

State Department official

restoring crippled infrastructure and shoring up the economy.

“Early recovery efforts are underway but full scale reconstruction can only occur in a peaceful environment. For that reason we want to close the space for malign Iranian influence.”

There is no place in a future Yemen for an Iranian-backed threat to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and vital international economic quarter