Iran Press/America: US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Persian Gulf Affairs Timothy Lenderking said on Sunday Washington's backing for the Saudi war is "necessary" and that its discontinuation "sends a wrong message."
“Obviously there are pressures in our system ... to either withdraw from the conflict or discontinue our support of the coalition, which we are strongly opposed to on the administration side,” he told a security forum in the UAE.
Last month, the US Senate voted to advance a resolution calling for an end to US military support for the Saudi-led coalition, including arms sales and intelligence sharing.
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It came in the wake of the gruesome murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate on October 2.
The CIA is said to have concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had “probably ordered” the murder.
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A recent briefing by CIA Director Gina Haspel hardened US senators' resolve to act against bin Salman and pull back from Yemen.
The murder has also brought the Saudi war on Yemen, especially its huge civilian toll, and the US role in the conflict under scrutiny.
Last month, the United States halted US refueling of Saudi aircraft, which have been blamed for thousands of civilian deaths in airstrikes in Yemen.
The US official's reassurances of continued support comes as Sweden hosts the first UN-led peace talks in two years between the warring parties.
The discussions began on Thursday between delegations from Yemen’s Houthi movement and the country’s former Saudi-backed regime but there has been no breakthrough yet.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating military campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the country’s Houthi Ansarullah Movement.
Some 16,000 Yemenis have been killed and thousands more injured since the onset of the Saudi-led aggression.
More than 85, 000 children have died of hunger during the war against Yemeni people.
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