Yemeni forces target Houthis as US rules out direct role

The United States reiterated its support for Yemen’s internationally recognised government on Wednesday as fighting intensified between the Saudi-led coalition and Houthi forces. US officials also held direct talks with Houthi representatives in Oman last weekend, according to sources cited by Reuters.

Yemeni government forces said that the coalition had struck Houthi positions around Mocha and that government forces had launched drone attacks in Marib. The Houthis claimed to have shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet over Marib.

Saudi Arabia is running low on missile interceptors and has asked regional and Western allies for help, according to two officials who spoke to The Associated Press news agency. The Saudis asked France, Pakistan, Egypt and the United Kingdom to deploy air-defence support to help defend against attacks by the Houthis. One official said Saudi Arabia’s main ally and arms supplier, the US, has seen its own stock of interceptors dwindle over the course of the war with Iran.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesman Tim Hawkins told Al Jazeera that the US is “closely monitoring” the situation between Houthis and the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, adding that the US military has a longstanding “military relationship with our Saudi partners, and you see that manifesting today”.

Even as Washington assists the Saudi campaign, American officials held direct talks with Houthi representatives in Oman last weekend, according to three sources who spoke to the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity. The meeting took place at the US embassy in Muscat with the assistance of the Omani government, two of the sources said.

At the Muscat meeting, the Houthis told US officials they had no intention of attacking US vessels and were committed to the 2025 ceasefire with the US, according to the sources cited by Reuters.

Meanwhile, the top US diplomat for Yemen, Neil Hop, told Yemen’s Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba that the US maintained its “strong support” for Yemen’s internationally recognised government, according to the US embassy in Yemen.

“The United States of America stands in solidarity with the Yemen government and its people against Iran-backed Houthi aggression,” the embassy said, citing Hop in a post on X.