US urges Iran-backed Houthis to halt attacks on Yemen's ports
The warning to the Houthis comes as US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking returns to the region to push for peace between the country's warring sides.
Nearly two months after the collapse of a fragile truce in Yemen, the Biden administration called Monday on the country’s Houthi rebels to halt their attacks on ports that risk reigniting a full-fledged conflict.
In recent weeks the Iran-backed group has carried out several attacks on oil terminals and seaports in government-held areas, disrupting the flow of crude exports and increasing pressure on negotiators seeking to revive a truce agreement between Yemen’s warring parties.
Most recently, the Houthis fired a projectile from a drone on the al-Dhabba oil terminal in Yemen’s Hadhramaut province last week, Reuters reported. The group has also attacked the Qena commercial port in the southern Shabwa province.
“We call on the Houthis to immediately cease their attacks on Yemeni ports,” the State Department said in a statement Monday. “Such attacks only risk plunging Yemenis into another pointless cycle of violence and suffering.”
