Saudi Arabia intercepts 4 ballistic missiles from Yemen

“I participated in the protests against the aggression [by the Saudi-led coalition]”.

As numerous reports have indicated, the Trump White House has essentially given free rein to Mattis and the U.S. military commanders to conduct armed operations as they see fit.

The Trump administration has yet to make a final decision and Defense Department officials are locked in a debate over the issue with the White House, with some senior aides to Trump favoring confronting Iran elsewhere, one advisor said. It has absolved the coalition of responsibility in almost all of the 17 incidents it has so far investigated and released findings that differed drastically from those of the United Nations and others.

China has even urged Saudi Arabia and Iran to “resolve the problems that exist between them via equal and friendly consultations” and offered to play a mediating role.

“If there were a serious disruption to that port, that would, I think, be sufficient to tip the country into starvation”, the Huffington Post reported Jeremy Konyndyk, who was the director of foreign disaster assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development until January, as saying. Riyadh recently floated the idea of the United Nations taking control of the port, something the worldwide body has ruled out. Coalition members have naval vessels patrolling access to the Hodeida coast, while Houthi-Saleh forces maintain control over the port.

Defense 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.

“At this meeting, they agreed to increase the amount of help, through training, arms and financial support”, the official said.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute the United States of America and UK combined have made arms transfers worth more than US$5 billion to Saudi Arabia since 2015.

The proposed assistance does not include putting USA military forces on the ground in this operation, the official said.

Human Rights Watch has documented 62 apparently unlawful coalition airstrikes, some of which may amount to war crimes, that have killed almost 900 civilians, and documented seven indiscriminate attacks by Houthi-Saleh forces in Aden and Taizz that killed 139 people, including at least eight children.

An Emirati soldier fires blanks in Abu Dhabi, UAE, earlier this month during a major military exercise as the nation fights alongside Saudi troops in Yemen.

“We’re expecting a domino effect“, with Sanaa under pressure in about six months if progress continues, he said.

US involvement in Yemen fits into the broader picture of the regional power struggle.

The Yemen civil war is one of the dirtiest little wars around.

He said in January 2016: “Now they (Iran) are going into Yemen…”

Playing the sectarianism card to keep relations tight with Shiite minorities in the region, Iran has stepped up its advanced weapons supply to its allies in Yemen.

Armed Yemeni tribesmen loyal to the Houthis on the outskirts of Sana’a. The Obama administration had acknowledged Iranian involvement, but some officials were reluctant to confront Tehran over the conflict, arguing they could “achieve some additional progress in normalizing a relationship with Iran”, he said.

Iran has a network of proxy forces that includes Lebanese Hezbollah and Afghan, Pakistani, and Iraqi Shia militias.

The Pentagon has formally asked the Trump White House to lift limited restrictions imposed by the Obama administration on USA military aid to the Saudi Arabian monarchy’s near genocidal war against the impoverished people of Yemen. A USA defense official said Iranian weapons smuggling to the Houthis had continued apace since March of previous year, when the seizures stopped.

Some former officials believe increased USA military action is long overdue.

The memo initiated a review in the White House, and with the Pentagon and Central Command.

“We want the Human Rights Council to take up this matter and conduct an impartial investigation as well, to have the weight of the UN Human Rights Council behind it“, Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division told RT. “Seven million Yemenis are facing starvation”.

The UN rejected the request, saying the responsibility to protect infrastructure and civilians could not be shifted to other parties.

“We call on the global community and the belligerents to step up efforts to improve access”, Queau said. States could begin by stopping weapons sales to Saudi Arabia until it ceases its unlawful attacks and investigates those that have occurred.