NYN | News
US Central Command Commander, General Michael K. Corella, currently in Riyadh, held meetings with the leadership of the Saudi Armed Forces and senior American diplomats, focusing discussions on the attacks by Sana’a government forces on Israeli ships.
According to the US Central Command in a post on its official account on the “X” platform, Corella’s visit to Saudi Arabia is part of a visit he is making to several countries in the region.
It mentioned that “General Corella met with the US Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Michael Ratney, and the US Ambassador to the Republic of Yemen, Stephen Fagin. The leaders discussed current security challenges in the region, with particular emphasis on Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.”
This comes weeks after a speech by the leader of Ansar Allah movement (the Houthis), Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, in which he hinted at US arrangements to carry out a ground attack on Yemen and ignite internal fronts, saying, “Let the Americans and the British imagine their situation if they were involved in any ground attack in front of hundreds of thousands of heroes backed by millions.”
Officials in the Sana’a government, as reported by media outlets, also spoke of American threats to ignite internal Yemeni fronts to pressure Sana’a government forces to stop their operations against Israeli ships.
Since late last year, Sana’a government forces have been targeting Israeli ships and those associated with them in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea before announcing the extension of their operations to part of the Indian Ocean.
Sana’a forces say their operations against “Israel” will continue until the latter stops what they term as the “genocidal war” in Gaza and lifts the blockade.
In response, the US and Britain launched airstrikes on Yemen, prompting Sana’a government forces to announce that their operations would include targeting American and British commercial and military ships in response to what they called “the American-British aggression.”
On May 3rd, Sana’a government forces, through their spokesperson Yahya Saree, announced in a statement the start of what they termed as the “fourth stage of escalation” and that they would target Israeli ships or those associated with Israel in the Mediterranean Sea if the latter attempted to invade Rafah.
