Pentagon Chief: US to Step Up Support for Saudis

Local Editor

The Trump administration is weighing providing additional support for the Saudi-led fight in Yemen amid mounting speculation about specific military steps the US may take in the battle.

But such a move could receive blowback on Capitol Hill, where members of both parties have called for the administration to provide a more detailed strategy on conflicts such as in Syria and have expressed doubts about assisting Saudi Arabia in Yemen.

War Secretary James Mattis all but pledged additional support for the Saudi-led fight in Yemen this week.

Mattis did not commit to any specific action in the fight, but US officials told Reuters that the meeting included discussions about additional assistance for the Saudi-led coalition, including potential intelligence support, while US troops were off the table.

The comments come as the Trump administration considers increasing support to the coalition fighting in Yemen, which began in March 2015.

More than 10,000 people are estimated to have been martyred in the war, and millions of Yemenis also face potential famine.

The US had supported the campaign since 2015 by selling the Saudis billions of dollars of weapons, providing intelligence and helping with logistics such as air refueling, but the Obama administration looked to scale back the aid last year.

Now reports indicate that President Trump wants to re-up the aid, focusing on an offensive on a key port in Yemen.

The administration had also said it will allow arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partner Bahrain that were previously held up under former President Obama, according to media reports.

"Nobody wants four more years of the last eight years of US policy. Nobody expects the US to be as muscular in the region as it was under [President George W. Bush], but they all want presence, they want to put Iran back in the box and they want to get rid of ‘ISIS' and al-Qaeda," said James Carafano, a foreign and defense policy expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

"They can do what Obama did and walk away, they can do what Bush did and try to shape the region, or they can do what this is, persistent presence, ‘We're going to be there and we're going to work with you.' It's not like they have a whole lot of choices," added Carafano, who was a member of Trump's transition team.

The move is still likely to receive pushback from lawmakers who have already expressed doubts about helping the Saudis in Yemen.

In a letter sent earlier this month, 55 House lawmakers asked Trump to end the US logistics assistance. The mostly Democratic group of lawmakers told Trump to get congressional approval if he wants to expand US involvement in the Yemeni conflict amid renewed calls for Congress to authorize military actions after Trump ordered a missile strike in Syria.

Senators also announced legislation this month that would require the president to certify that Saudi Arabia is meeting certain conditions before finalizing future arms sales to the country.

"The United States has no business supplying a military that targets civilians or enables terrorist groups to thrive, but that's exactly what we're doing right now in Yemen," Sen. Chris Murphy [D-Conn.] said in a statement.

"The Saudis are important partners in the Middle East, but they have continued to disregard our advice when it comes to target selection and civilian protection."
Adding to US commitments overseas, Mattis on Thursday also vowed that the US will aid Egypt in its battle against terrorism, primarily the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"], according to Stars and Stripes.

"We agreed on the need for a renewed and strong security partnership, as the new administration comes in," Mattis said of his discussions Thursday in the Egyptian capital with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Defense Minister Gen. Sedki Sobhy.

Mattis said he "left Cairo very confident, very confident in the avenues we have to advance our military-to-military relationship, which has been a bedrock and has stood solid all these years."

Mattis did not say what kind of assistance the US would provide Egypt for its fight against Daesh. US officials told Stars and Stripes that no specific commitments were made.

The vow is another shift from the Obama administration, which had strained relations with Egypt over human rights issues.

Carafano argued that Congress is not likely to reject the commitments to Egypt and Saudi Arabia as a whole.

"There's always elements within the Congress that have different views on different countries, but there isn't a bipartisan consensus on any of these guys - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt," he said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team