An Iran-backed militant group raided a U.S. diplomatic facility in Yemen, compounding the recent kidnapping of Yemeni staff who worked for the State Department.
“We call on the Houthis to immediately vacate it and return all seized property,” a State Department spokesman told the Washington Examiner. “The U.S. government will continue its diplomatic efforts to secure the release of our staff and the vacating of our compound, including through our international partners.”
State Department officials shuttered the embassy in February 2015, weeks after the Iran-backed Houthis seized the capital city and overthrew the internationally recognized government. The Embassy Sanaa team relocated to Saudi Arabia, working to “maintain our diplomatic engagement with the Yemeni government,” as the State Department puts it, from the embassy in Riyadh.
“We are committed to ensuring the safety of those who serve the U.S. Government overseas, and that is why we are so actively engaged on this matter, including through our international partners,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said earlier this week.
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Houthi militants stole “large quantities of equipment and materials” from the U.S. facility in Sanaa, according to regional media. The raid is just the latest antagonism of the State Department. It took place days after the reported kidnapping of three Yemeni nationals who had worked in the embassy, bringing the total number of embassy employees kidnapped over the last month to about two dozen.
“The majority of the detained have been released, but the Houthis continue to detain additional Yemeni employees of the Embassy,” the State Department spokesman said.
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The Yemeni civil war has taken on the character of a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the years since State Department officials withdrew from the Sanaa facility. Gulf Arab states intervened in the conflict weeks after the Houthis seized the capital, and the ensuing conflict has driven four million Yemeni civilians from their homes and threatened millions more with famine.
“We are concerned that Yemeni staff of the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a continue to be detained without explanation and we call for their immediate release,” a State Department spokesman also said. “The United States has been unceasing in its diplomatic efforts to secure their release. The majority of the detained have been released, but the Houthis continue to detain additional Yemeni employees of the Embassy.”
