The US continued on Wednesday to tacitly drum up support for a possible invasion of Yemen by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition.
The State Department confirmed that it was stepping up military aid to the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan—Islamabad is currently considering a request from Riyadh to join the alliance—and brushed off concerns about it enabling a ground invasion of Yemen.
“Every country can make their own decision about if and how they participate in the Saudi-led coalition,” acting department spokesperson Marie Harf said, when asked directly by a reporter at a press briefing whether the US supported “Pakistan sending ground troops to Yemen.”
The Saudi-led forces have attacked Yemen by air and sea since March 26, two months after Houthi rebels from a Shia sect seized power in Sana’a, the country’s capital. The subsequent fighting has already claimed the lives of at least hundreds of civilians, according to the UN.
Although supporters of the overthrown Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi claim the Houthi militias are supported by Iran, the relevance and veracity of that charge has been challenged by observers.
“I think that’s vastly overblown. There is very little good journalism that has been done to prove the extent of the relationship between the Houthis in Iran,” journalist and documentarian Safa Al-Ahmad told “Democracy Now!” on Tuesday. She said she didn’t doubt there were ties between Tehran and Houthi leaders but that reducing the Houthis to a “Iranian-backed Shia militia…is very, very problematic,” she said.
“The Houthis have local agenda, they have local grievances, and local power,” Al-Ahmad added.
Iran did ask Pakistan on Wednesday to refrain from partaking in ongoing military operations in Yemen.
Assistance to the two gulf monarchies and the Pakistanis has been publicly offered by Washington for different reasons.
Harf noted that the aid to Pakistan—helicopters and associated equipment worth an estimated $952 million—is intended to assist domestic counterterrorism operations, and that the US is “confident” in its ability to monitor how the weapons are used.
She also claimed a reporter’s questions about the assistance freeing up Pakistani resources for a possible invasion of Yemen had no factual basis.
Harf did confirm that help to the Saudis and UAE is directly linked to the ongoing military campaign in Yemen and above what the US had initially committed to in that context. She also, however, said that the aid consists of the US “working to deliver some preexisting orders for military equipment more quickly.”
On Tuesday, Harf had said reports that the US extended help to the Saudis outside of the intelligence and logistics realms were untrue.
“I was wrong yesterday,” she noted Wednesday. “It was reported accurately.
Egypt, another major member of the coalition said to be considering invading Yemen, saw a hold on US military aid lifted last week by the White House. When announcing the decision and reasons behind it, the administration cited the situation in Libya and national security exemptions to statutory human rights-based restrictions placed on military assistance.
Egypt had been prevented from receiving aid through normal channels since 2013, after its current military dictator, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, seized power in a coup.
