The U.S. special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, is headed to Saudi Arabia and Jordan on Monday to continue Washington’s diplomatic efforts to back a United Nation’s mediated truce in Yemen, Reuters reports, citing the U.S. State Department said.
Lenderking’s visit “will continue our efforts to help advance peace,” the department said in a statement on the trip, which follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to the region earlier this month.
U.S. Special envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking in Riyadh in March 2021.
President Biden has praised Saudi Arabia’s role as a stabilizing force in Yemen. In June, Biden welcomed a continuation of the truce in the war-torn country, brokered by Saudi Arabia and its partners. “The last two months in Yemen, thanks to the truce brokered in April, have been among the most peaceful periods since this terrible war began seven years ago. Thousands of lives have been saved as fighting receded. For the first time in seven years, Yemenis are able to fly from Sana’a to destinations outside Yemen. We have also seen additional fuel ships moving through the port of Hudaydah, helping ease Yemen’s fuel crisis. The parties to the conflict have now extended this truce for another two months, and it’s important that we work from here to make it permanent,” Biden said in a statement on June 2.
“Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the UN-led truce,” he said.
During President Biden’s two-day visit to the Kingdom, the President and his team of advisors met with King Salman and then had a working group session with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and top ministers in the Kingdom. In the session, the two sides discussed the situation in Yemen in detail, according to the White House, and both committed “to taking steps to doing everything possible to extend and strengthen the UN-mediated truce, which has led to fifteen weeks of peace, the quietest period in Yemen in years, and translate it into a durable ceasefire and political process.”
The White House also said that as part of that discussion, President Biden “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to help Saudi Arabia protect and defend its territory and people from all external attacks, particularly those launched by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. He also welcomed Saudi Arabia’s strong commitment to the truce, particularly leading, in tandem with the Yemen government, efforts to resume direct commercial flights from Sana’a to Amman and Cairo for the first time in seven years. The President also welcomed the Kingdom’s financial support to Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, which will help improve basic services and economic stability to ease the suffering of Yemenis. This support includes a pledge to provide over $1 billion for development projects and fuel support, in addition to a joint Saudi and Emirati $2 billion deposit to the Central Bank of Yemen.”
