Trump urges Saudi Arabia to end blockade into Yemen
WASHINGTON — Presi- dent Donald Trump pressed Saudi Arabia on Wednesday to fully end its blockade of food, water, medicine and fuel into Yemen, a rare humanitarian rebuke to the Middle East ally that he has firmly embraced since taking office.
Saudi Arabia joined Yemen’s civil war, which pits the country’s leaders against Houthi rebels, in 2015. In November, the Saudis intensified a blockade on Yemen, stopping the entry of goods and other basic necessities, and heightening warnings of a humanitarian crisis from international aid groups.
In a brief but blunt statement, Mr. Trump called on the Saudi government to “completely allow food, fuel, water and medicine to reach the Yemeni people who desperately need it.” He said lifting the blockade “must be done for humanitarian reasons immediately.”
The president’s pointed request to the Saudi monarchy came on the same day that his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel sparked anger among Saudi leaders, including King Salman, who condemned Mr. Trump’s announcement.
Mr. Trump has emphasized cooperation, not conflict, with Riyadh since becoming president. He has hailed his close relationship with the Saudis and described it as a key part of efforts to combat Islamic extremists.
Even so, Saudi’s ongoing fighting in Yemen has the potential to strain the friendship between the kingdom and the United States, especially in the wake of the blockade, which humanitarian groups described as increasingly dire for Yemen’s civilian population.
Last month, a missile fired from Yemen stuck near the Saudi capital’s airport. Afterward, the kingdom tightened an earlier blockade, closing all of Yemen’s seaports and airports. Those restrictions since have been slightly loosened, but aid groups still say that not enough food or fuel is getting in to prevent further deterioration in the humanitarian situation. The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday said Yemen “stands on the brink of a catastrophic famine.”
American diplomats had privately pressed the Saudis to relent in their blockade.
In recent days, officials said Mr. Trump was presented with mounting evidence of the human cost of the Saudi blockade, including the impact on children, and the spread of diseases like cholera and diphtheria as a result of the lack of food and clean water in the country.
U.S. troops in Syria
The Pentagon on Wednesday acknowledged that 2,000 American troops are on the ground in Syria.
That’s almost four times the total previously disclosed as the Trump administration changes how troop numbers are publicly counted, and it’s the first time the military has admitted that it deployed well more than the Obama-era limit of 503 troops.
And the number was recently even higher: The new figure reflects the withdrawal of 400 Marines who had been providing artillery support to U.S.-backed Syrian rebels.
Brain abnormalities
Doctors treating the U.S. embassy victims of suspected attacks in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain hearing, vision, balance and memory damage, The Associated Press has learned.
It is the most specific finding to date about physical damage, showing that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains. The finding also is one of several factors fueling growing skepticism that some kind of sonic weapon was involved.