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US unlikely to intervene directly in Houthi-Saudi war
The United States is unlikely to have any direct involvement in the war in Yemen in the short term, American University professor and former senior US diplomat William Lawrence told Al Jazeera.
However, Lawrence said the fighting “doesn’t necessarily get us to peace faster”.
“In fact, it probably slows things down,” he said.
Lawrence asserted that America’s role in the conflict is to provide Saudi Arabia with intelligence, surveillance, decision-making and weapons training.
The support role is similar to Iran backing the Houthis, he said but is unlikely to involve direct military engagement for “probably good reasons in that it’s escalatory for the Americans to go in and also could prolong the conflict, not shorten it”.
While Houthi fighters have captured Yemeni territory close to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping waterway, the group faces several issues, he said, reports AL Jazeera.
“One is their supply lines. They’re not getting food and water and bullets to the frontline, and they’re not even really able to hold the front end of the territory they’ve just taken,” he said.
“This is the domestic Yemen part of this conflict [in] which the Houthis want to grab all of Yemen’s territory as soon as they can and get reparations from Saudi Arabia, which is a non-starter for Saudi Arabia.”