The US said talks to end the war in Yemen must start this month, ramping up pressure on Saudi Arabia to dial back its aggressive foreign policy following the murder of a vocal critic of the kingdom.
In separate remarks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis said the Saudi-led coalition and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels must move toward a political resolution to the war that the created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
Mattis said the warring parties must meet in Sweden in 30 days.
The murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an insider-turned critic, has focused international attention on the policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
In addition to the war in Yemen, the 33-year-old has led an unprecedented political and economic embargo against Qatar, and engaged in diplomatic confrontations with countries such as Germany and Canada.
“The time is now for the cessation of hostilities,” including missile and drone strikes by Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Pompeo said in a statement. “Subsequently, coalition air strikes must cease in all populated areas in Yemen.”
Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of mainly Sunni-ruled countries in 2015 to restore the government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was driven out much of the country by Shiite Houthi fighters.
While Hadi’s forces have since regained large parts of Yemen, the Houthis still control the capital, Sana’a, and have resisted attempts to force them to negotiate a solution that would lessen their influence.
Mattis, in a speech on Tuesday, said Saudi Arabia and the UAE were ready for talks.
“We’ve got to move toward a peace effort and we can’t say we’re going to do it some time in the future,” he said. “We need to be doing this in the next 30 days.”
The killing of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul this month and the kingdom’s shifting explanations of the incident have prompted the US to try and rein in the kingdom’s aggressive foreign policy.
Warring parties must “meet in Sweden this month and come to a solution, not talk about subordinate issues,” Mattis said at the US Institute of Peace event.
Discussions should focus on demilitarizing the Yemeni border and placing Iranian-provided Houthi missiles “under international watch and parked somewhere where they can be accounted for,” he said.
Sweden could host the talks, Swedish Minister of Foreign Affiars Margot Wallstrom said yesterday.
The UN has asked Sweden and it would be happy to, but nothing is definite, she said.
Additional reporting by AP
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of