Skip to footer

Kerry discusses Yemen with Saudi king in one of his last trips

The Secretary of State's visit was intended to underline the alliance between the US and Saudi Arabia despite recent tensions.

|
Saudi Press Agency
US Secretary of State John Kerry met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman, right, on Sunday, in Riyadh.
  • By Abdullah al-Shihri and Jon Gambrell Associated Press

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Saudi King Salman and others Sunday to discuss the war in Yemen, a visit to the kingdom that likely will be his last as America's top diplomat.

Kerry's trip, ahead of the inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, comes as diplomatic ties between the two longtime allies have been strained by the Iran nuclear deal championed by Democratic President Barack Obama and other issues.

Meanwhile, America has grown increasingly worried about civilian casualties caused by Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen to the point of cutting some arms sales to the kingdom last week.

The war in Yemen has also allowed extremist groups to flourish there, as the local affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed a suicide bombing Sunday in the southern port city of Aden that killed over 50 soldiers lined up to receive their pay.

Any tensions weren't immediately visible as Kerry held meetings with the king, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and other royalty in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

"In turbulent times, it's good to have solid friends," Kerry told journalists Sunday night. "That's why the United States' partnership with Saudi Arabia is rightly so valuable."

Kerry earlier joined diplomats from Britain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates to speak with Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the United Nations special envoy to Yemen.

The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, while Oman has served as an interlocutor for them.

On Twitter, British Middle East Minister Tobias Ellwood said the meeting discussed a political process to end Yemen's war, something he described as "the only way to bring peace."

Kerry said he hoped to have parties involved "within two weeks" to agree to terms earlier set out by the U.N. But he and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir offered few specifics on how that would be accomplished, especially as the U.N. has proposed sidelining Saudi-backed President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi and giving the rebels a share of power — concessions the kingdom strongly opposes.

"You can see from the humanitarian situation, which is dire and deteriorating rapidly, that it is urgent that we try to bring this war to a close," he said. "But we also need to bring it to a close in a way that protects the security of Saudi Arabia."

Yemen's war began when the Houthis and their allies seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, expelling Hadi's government. A Saudi-led coalition of mostly Gulf Arab nations launched a campaign in March 2015 against the Iran-backed rebels.

The U.N. and rights groups estimate at least 9,000 people overall have died in the war, with the U.N. estimating at least 4,125 civilians have been killed since the airstrike campaign began. Saudi-led coalition airstrikes were responsible for 60 percent of the civilian deaths over a yearlong span starting in July last year, according to a U.N. report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Kerry discusses Yemen with Saudi king in one of his last trips
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2016/1218/Kerry-discusses-Yemen-with-Saudi-king-in-one-of-his-last-trips
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe