Can Riyadh avoid yielding to US pressure to sabotage talks with Sanaa?
RIYADH, July 30 (YPA) -A senior US delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks about the recent escalation between the Israeli entity and the Sanaa forces, Axios reported, citing three US officials.
The US delegation is headed by Brett McGurk, the White House’s top Middle East adviser, the US officials said.
The State Department’s top Middle East diplomat Barbara Leaf, the U.S. envoy for Yemen Tim Lendeking and the Pentagon’s top Middle East official Dan Shapiro are also part of the delegation.
Saudi Arabia has recently expressed concern about the tension between Sanaa and the Israeli entity and fears being drawn into a renewed conflict with Yemen.
Israeli warplanes had carried out strikes on Yemen, targeting oil tanks in the port of Hodeida, in response to a Yemeni drone attack on the city of Jaffa, also known as Tel Aviv.
The visit of US delegation to Saudi Arabia comes amid accusations from Sanaa that the US is obstructing efforts to mediate between Riyadh and Sanaa.
Recent negotiations between Sanaa and Riyadh had led to significant steps, including the cancellation of banking bans imposed by the Aden Central Bank and the Sanaa Bank last week, as well as the resumption of flights from Sanaa Airport to Jordan and the potential expansion of civil aviation routes from Sanaa Airport to several destinations, according to Yemeni officials in the Sanaa government.
Many observers believe that the United States will not hesitate to pressure Saudi Arabia in order to force Sanaa to abandon its support for the Palestinian people in Gaza strip, who are enduring genocidal war by Israeli occupation forces with full support from Washington.
Since November, Sanaa has been carrying out naval military operations to prevent the passage of Israel-linked ships, prompting the US to conduct offensive operations against Yemen since February.
In addition to Yemen’s decision to ban navigation to Israeli occupation ports, Sanaa has directed drone and ballistic missile strikes at key targets within the Israeli occupation, with the most recent being a drone strike that reached Haifa (Tel Aviv), which triggered a fierce response from the Israeli entity and led to strikes on fuel tanks in the port of Hodeida in western Yemen. This has resulted in an unprecedented escalation in the conflict between Yemen and the Israeli occupation.
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