The United States is calling on Yemen's Houthis to adhere to the Stockholm Agreement and halt its attacks on Saudi Arabia after a drone strike targeted the kingdom's Abha airport, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th June, 2019) The United States is calling on Yemen's Houthis to adhere to the Stockholm Agreement and halt its attacks on Saudi Arabia after a drone strike targeted the kingdom's Abha airport, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday."These Iranian-backed attacks are unacceptable, and all the more reprehensible given that they targeted innocent civilians. They also put Americans living, working, and transiting through Saudi Arabia at risk," Pompeo said in a statement. "We call on the Iran-backed Houthis to end these reckless and provocative attacks on behalf of the Iranian regime."
One person was killed and eight others wounded in an apparent drone strike at the Abha airport in southern Saudi Arabia, local media reported on Sunday.
Pompeo urged the rebel group to "engage constructively" in the UN-backed peace process and to abide by the commitments it made during peace talks in Sweden.
He also accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard of funneling cash and weapons to the Houthis, calling such actions part of a 40-year pattern of "spreading death and chaos in the region."
"Some want to portray the Yemen conflict as an isolated civil war, without a clear aggressor. It is neither. It is spreading conflict and humanitarian disaster that was conceived of and perpetuated by the Islamic Republic of Iran," Pompeo said.
The top US diplomat is currently visiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for crisis talks with the region's leaders after tensions soared following Iran's downing of a US Navy drone.
Pompeo called his meetings with Saudi Arabia's leaders "productive."
"I confirmed that the United States will continue to stand with all of our allies and partners in the region," he said. "We will continue to pursue peace and stability in Middle East.�And we will continue our pressure campaign until Iran stops its torrent of violence and meets diplomacy with diplomacy."
Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen have claimed previous attacks on Saudi Arabia, including a June 12 missile strike on the arrivals hall of the Abha airport that injured 26 people, including children.
Last December, the warring parties attended long-awaited UN-brokered peace talks in Sweden. As a result of the meeting, the rebels and the government agreed on a ceasefire in the Yemeni port city of Al Hudaydah, an exchange of prisoners and the establishment of humanitarian corridors.
The Saudi-led coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen at the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi since 2015. The intense fighting has resulted in one of the world's most acute humanitarian crises, with about 22 million people in Yemen currently in need of assistance.
