NEW YORK — A senior Yemeni government official on Wednesday called for the United States to provide military support against the Houthis to counter the Iran-backed group’s lightning advance on the country’s Red Sea coast.

“We definitely need the military and security support of the United States,” said Abdullah Al-Alimi Bawazir, a vice chair of Yemen’s ruling Presidential Leadership Council. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York City, Bawazir declined to say whether his government was seeking direct US strikes or another form of military assistance, but emphasized the need for “mutual coordination on the intelligence and security fields.”

"The aerial campaigns are important, but supporting the Yemeni government and forces on the ground is indeed a guarantor to end the danger of those militias," Bawazir said.

Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Houthis expelled the internationally recognized government in 2014 and seized the capital, Sanaa, along with much of the country’s north. A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened the next year, and the conflict quickly devolved into a regional proxy war. The latest Houthi offensive has collapsed a United Nations-brokered truce that took effect in April 2022.