President Donald Trump said his administration would be calling on Saudi Arabia to end its blockade of Yemeni ports in order to allow critically needed supplies to reach the besieged population of the country, which has been ravaged by civil war and famine.
“I have directed officials in my Administration to call the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to request that they completely allow food, fuel, water, and medicine to reach the Yemeni people who desperately need it,” Trump said in his brief written statement Wednesday. “This must be done for humanitarian reasons immediately.”
The statement did not indicate who would make the calls. CNN reached out to the State Department on Wednesday, but did not immediately receive a response.
A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen for more than two years. They closed the ports last month after the Houthis fired a ballistic missile toward an airport in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, thereby blocking shipments of food and medicine and triggering broad international outrage.
More recently, Saudi Arabia has taken steps to lift the blockade, allowing initial shipments of supplies to reach the country last week.
The US welcomed the decision at the time, with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders saying in a statement that the US looked forward to “additional steps that will facilitate the unfettered flow of humanitarian and commercial goods from all ports of entry to the points of need.”
“The magnitude of suffering in Yemen requires all parties to this conflict to focus on assistance to those in need,” she continued. “All sides must support a political process with facilitating humanitarian relief as the top priority.”
Sanders reiterated the Trump administration’s general support for the Saudi-led coalition, and condemned Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for “aggression and blatant violations of international law” in Yemen.
Yemen’s civil war has caused a desperate famine in the country, as well as a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 2,000 people.
