US signals impatience with Saudi-led war in Yemen by ending aerial refueling support

NO PEACE, NO GAS: The U.S. is pulling back some support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, as it presses for a ceasefire and peace talks by the end of the month. In statement, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis portrayed the decision to stop U.S. refueling of Saudi warplanes attacking Houthi rebels in Yemen as a Saudi initiative. “We support the decision by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after consultations with the U.S. Government, to use the Coalition’s own military capabilities to conduct inflight refueling in support of its operations in Yemen,” Mattis said. “The U.S. and the [Saudi-led] Coalition are planning to collaborate on building up legitimate Yemeni forces to defend the Yemeni people, secure their country’s borders, and contribute to counter Al Qaeda and ISIS efforts in Yemen and the region.”

Last month Mattis issued an ultimatum to all sides to stop fighting and get serious about talking, but placed the primary blame on the Iranian-backed Houthis. “We’ve got to move towards a peace effort here, and we can’t say we’re going to do it sometime in the future. We need to be doing this in the next 30 days. We’ve admired this problem for long enough down there and I believe that the Saudis and the emirates are ready and in fact, had the Houthis not walked out of the last effort that [UN Special Envoy] Martin Griffiths had going, we would probably be on our way there right now,” Mattis said at forum sponsored by the U.S. Institute for Peace Oct 30.