US urges Saudi-led coalition to cease airstrikes in 'populated areas' of Yemen

RT
Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:35 UTC

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo • Defense Secretary James Mattis

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has urged the Saudi-led coalition to stop airstrikes in heavily populated Yemen, shortly after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said a that long-lasting ceasefire is the only possible solution.

"Time is now for the cessation of hostilities, including missile and UAV strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Subsequently, Coalition air strikes must cease in all populated areas," Pompeo said in a statement.

"It is time to end this conflict, replace conflict with compromise, and allow the Yemeni people to heal through peace and reconstruction," declared the top diplomat of the country that supplies the coalition with the bulk of its weapons, as well as intelligence and reconnaissance assistance.

Just hours earlier - while noting that American aircraft continue to provide aerial refueling and intelligence to Saudi jets attacking Yemeni targets - the Pentagon chief also demanded that the warring parties work towards a long-lasting peace.

"We want to see everybody around a peace table based on ceasefire, based on a pullback from the border, and then based on ceasing dropping bombs," Mattis said at the Institute of Peace (USIP).

Some US lawmakers have long called on US leadership to halt support for the Saudi-led coalition, which has been bombing Yemen since March of 2015, causing thousands of civilian deaths. The calls to cut the sales of weapons to the Gulf Kingdom, however, really intensified only in wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident Washington Post columnist killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month.

Comment: The time to end this conflict was years ago.

And from Sputnik:

A strike by the Arab coalition fighting Houthis in Yemen killed 150 rebels near the port city of Hodeidah, a spokesman for the Saudi-led forces said Tuesday. The missile and bomb attack hit a Houthi training camp, Col. Turki Al-Malki said.

The coalition of mostly Gulf Arab nations has been carrying airstrikes in Yemen in support of the country's government since 2015.

UN aid chief Mark Lowcock has warned that fierce clashes for the Red Sea port were blocking a crucial road used by food convoys to feed northern Yemen. Half of the country's population, he said, will soon be on the brink of famine.