DUBAI: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday accused Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen of failing to comply with a cease-fire agreement for the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah reached at UN-sponsored talks in Sweden.
His comments came after he cut short his Middle East tour and headed home early to attend a family funeral on Monday.
“The work that was done in Sweden on Yemen was good, but both sides need to honor those commitments,” Pompeo said in Riyadh after talks with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “To date, the Houthis have chosen not to do that.”
The US Embassy in Riyadh said Pompeo and Prince Mohammed “agreed on the need for continued de-escalation and adherence to the Sweden agreements,” especially the cease-fire in Hodeidah.
“A comprehensive political solution is the only way to end the conflict,” the embassy said.
Hodeidah was for months the main front line in Yemen after government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition launched an offensive to capture it in June. More than 80 percent of Yemen’s imports pass through the port, but it is also a key route for Iranian arms and ammunition supplied to the Houthis, including parts for missiles used to attack Saudi Arabia.
The UN has said the Hodeidah truce has largely held since it came into force on Dec. 18, but there have been delays in the agreed pullback of Houthi and government forces. In 80 minutes of talks with the king and the crown prince, Pompeo restated US concern about the 19-month dispute between Qatar and other Gulf states over Doha’s support for terrorism, which he said was threatening regional unity needed to counter Iran.
“We did talk about how we might put the Gulf rift back in a better place,” he said. “I think they’d like to see that too.”
Pompeo said the king and the crown prince had also assured him everyone responsible for the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi would be held accountable. Khashoggi, 59, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October. Eleven Saudis have been charged and prosecutors seek the death penalty for five of them.
The Saudi leaders “acknowledged that accountability needed to take place. They talked about the process inside their country, both the investigative process and the judicial process,” Pompeo said.
“They reiterated their commitment to achieve the objective, the expectations we set for them.”
Pompeo left Saudi Arabia for Oman on Monday but canceled plans to visit Kuwait because of a death in his family.
The ongoing dispute between Qatar and four of America’s other close Arab partners also featured in Pompeo’s talks, as the rift continues to hamper a US-led effort to unite the Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan in a military alliance to counter Iran.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE began a boycott of Qatar in June 2017, accusing Qatar of funding extremist groups and cozying up to Iran.
