Saudi Arabia has announced a phase shift in its 27-day long airstrike campaign on Houthi positions in Yemen “at the request of Yemen’s President Hadi, the official SPA, SUSRIS and other outlets are reporting.
A Saudi airstrike in Yemen.
But not long after the announcement, reports indicate that the battle continues on in Yemen. Saudi airstrikes continued following a rebel attack on a pro-Hadi government brigade. The continuance of skirmishes shows “how tough it may be to find a political solution to a war stirring animosities between rival Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Iran,” according to Reuters.
According to the AFP, The White House welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to halt airstrikes in Yemen on Tuesday and “urged talks to end a crisis that threatened to draw regional powers into direct conflict…”The United States welcomes today’s announcement by the government of Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners of the conclusion of Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen,” National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey told AFP.”
Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Washington tweeted out the announcement, as captured by our sister site SUSRIS.
Meanwhile, the United States is making strategic naval shifts in the region. The United States is “deploying warships to Yemen to monitor nearby Iranian vessels has given America ‘options’ for how it could react to Iran’s behavior in the region, CNN reports.
