The government of Yemen is seeking U.S. military support in its fight against the Houthis, a senior Yemeni official said Wednesday, as the Iranian-backed rebels rapidly expand their control of Yemen’s Red Sea coast and threaten another critical Middle East waterway for global energy supplies. Yemen’s president, Rashad al-Alimi, conveyed the request for U.S. assistance to President Donald Trump in a call earlier this week, Abdullah Al-Alimi Bawazir, vice president of the Yemeni Leadership Council, told reporters on the sidelines of the U.N. Asked about a report this week by , which cited one Yemeni and one Western source as saying that Trump had made no direct pledge of military support to Yemen during the call, Bawazir said he was unaware that the request had been rejected.
He said Trump understands the danger of the Houthis, and that “we hope and expect more support for the Yemeni government in the face of the Houthi militias.” The White House did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment overnight. Bawazir did not say whether U.S. support should extend to direct military strikes. In their latest military campaign, the Houthis have advanced along Yemen’s Red Sea coastline with the aim of cutting off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which has become a critical waterway for Saudi Arabia to transport oil after Iran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia, a critical U.S. ally in the Middle East including in the U.S. war with Iran, has urged the U.S. to take military action against the Houthis, who further escalated their actions over the weekend by launching an attack on the Saudi capital of Riyadh. So far U.S. support has been limited to providing intelligence and targeting data. Trump, who announced a ceasefire with the Houthis last year after weeks of punishing strikes against the militant group, went so far as to order strikes against the Houthis on Sunday, NBC News previously reported, but the order was canceled hours later.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the U.S. has made commitments to the Saudis and is living up to them, adding that “obviously, the president has many options available to him.” Trump said earlier this month that the Houthis, which the U.S. designates as a terrorist organization, don’t want to fight the U.S. and “they don’t want us to go after them.” “They’ve called and they’ve talked to us, and they don’t want us to,” Trump told reporters while in Ireland. ”They would much prefer not having us involved, and they’re letting most ships go through.” Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, told the on Sunday that it was the U.S. that had reached out to the rebel group after their advancement toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. But he said that Yemen was comfortable with the U.S. position.
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