Pentagon fails to deliver US strategy on Yemen

The Donald Trump administration has missed another congressional deadline to lay out the US strategy in Yemen, Al-Monitor has learned.

The US strategy in the four-year conflict has never been publicly articulated even as the Barack Obama and Trump administrations provided refueling and intelligence support. A reporting requirement was set out in last year’s defense authorization bill, which called on the Pentagon to detail specific US diplomatic and national security objectives and the costs of American involvement, including the controversial refueling mission terminated in November.

“The Department of Defense is working with Congress to provide the report," Pentagon spokesperson Rebecca Rebarich told Al-Monitor.

The failure to respond on time is likely to frustrate lawmakers in the wake of another legislative rebuke to US involvement. Last week, the Senate voted to curtail US war powers in Yemen, a move that would cut off American intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition. After the United States stopped refueling coalition aircraft in November, the Pentagon has focused on providing intelligence support to the Saudi-led coalition and assisting with no-strike lists. A senior Pentagon official had pledged to deliver the strategy report at the beginning of March after failing to meet a Feb. 1 deadline mandated by law.