The United States is speeding up arms supplies and bolstering intelligence sharing with a Saudi-led alliance bombing a militia aligned with Iran in neighboring Yemen, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S., a key ally of oil-rich Saudi Arabia, had also set up a coordination center in the Sunni Muslim kingdom, whose forces have led an air campaign against the Shi'ite Houthi group which rules most of Yemen.
"Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Houthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force," he told reporters in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
"As part of that effort, we have expedited weapons deliveries, we have increased our intelligence sharing, and we have established a joint coordination planning cell in the Saudi operation center," Blinken added.
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that his country opposed the coalition's 13-day air assault.
"Our view is that the solution for the crisis in Yemen is to stop the attacks and foreign interference against the people of this country," Khamenei was quoted as saying by Iran's state TV.
"It's the Yemenis who need to make the decisions about the future of their country," he added.
Exploiting Yemen's collapsed central authority, al Qaeda militants reportedly made gains on Tuesday, as gunmen believed to be from the group stormed a remote Yemeni border post with Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Sources in Yemen's eastern province of Hadramawt said the gunmen took over the desert base near Manwakh, about 440 km (270 miles) northeast of the capital Sanaa, killing at least two soldiers including the senior border guard officer.
The attack happened less than a week after al Qaeda gunmen attacked the Arabian Sea port of Mukalla, in a sign that Yemen's weakened army is failing to secure broad swathes of the country.
Credit to Reuters.com
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