Kerry said stability in Yemen is important to blunting the expansion of extremist groups there like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
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Iran’s foreign minister is rejecting claims from Saudi Arabia that his country supplied the Shiite rebels in Yemen with missiles.
Fewer than five US service members are now assigned full-time to the “Joint Combined Planning Cell”, which was established previous year to coordinate US support, including air-to-air refueling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a US Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday proposed a peace plan for Yemen that would include the presence of Houthi rebels in a national unity government.
On May 6, Human Rights Watch (HRW) criticized the United States for selling cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia, urging Riyadh to stop using such banned arms that leave behind unexploded sub-munitions and endanger civilians.
More than 3.1 million Yemenis have been displaced since the civil war broke out in March 2015, and more than 80 percent of the country’s population (21 million people) are in need of humanitarian assistance, while seven in 10 Yemenis need emergency food supplies, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, an agency funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
In a statement, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called for an global investigation into the grave violations, saying a national commission had not worked in pursuing perpetrators.
A senior State Department official traveling with Kerry said he was expected to raise USA concerns about civilian casualties in Yemen during his meetings in Saudi Arabia. An estimated 3,800 civilians have been killed since the Saudi-led airstrikes began.
Saudi Arabia’s Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz received United States Secretary of State John Kerry and accompanying delegation on Thursday.
Kerry also met UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to exchange ideas about reaching a political solution in Yemen.
Mr Kerry arrived in Jeddah on Wednesday night and had a three-hour dinner with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman that lasted until almost 1am, according to United States officials. Kerry “will raise our concerns about civilian casualties and damage to civilian targets inside Yemen”, the US official said, adding that he would press the Saudis to ensure air strikes were “discriminate and precise”. They also said they had “troubling reports” of coalition planes dropping cluster bombs on residential areas of Sanaa.
The coordination with Washington’s major Middle East allies came on the eve of Syria talks in Geneva between Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
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Kerry focussed on the same conflicts at a working lunch with ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council which groups Saudi Arabia with its neighbors.
