US steps up arms shipments to back Saudi-led coalition

The United States has stepped up weapons deliveries in support of a Saudi-led coalition resisting the advance of Shiite rebels in Yemen, a senior US official said today.
"Saudi Arabia is sending a strong message to the Huthis and their allies that they cannot overrun Yemen by force," Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in the Saudi capital.
"In support of that effort we have expedited weapons deliveries," he said after talks with Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman and other Saudi officials.
"We've increased our intelligence sharing, and we've established a joint coordination planning cell in the Saudi operations centre."

The coalition on March 26 began air strikes in Yemen, aiming to defeat the Huthi rebels who seized power in the capital Sanaa in February, and who Riyadh feared would take over the entire country and shift it into the orbit of Shiite Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia's regional rival.
The Huthis, allied with army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been fighting forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to the Saudi capital Riyadh late last month from the port city of Aden.

Blinken said Hadi's opponents "have brought Yemen to the brink of economic collapse" and demolished government institutions in a country which had been "on a very positive path to an inclusive future".

Al-Qaeda and other groups were seeking to exploit the resulting instability, he said.
"These security threats extend beyond Yemen to the region and indeed to the entire world."
Blinken, who is on a Middle East tour, met with Hadi during his Riyadh stop.
The US official said it "is more important than ever" that the US and the Gulf Cooperation Council states, which include Saudi Arabia, coordinate closely and press all parties especially the Huthis and their allies "to commit to a consensus political solution".
Blinken also offered reassurances that a framework agreement reached last week to curb Iran's nuclear drive would make the Gulf safer.

"Iran without a nuclear weapon will be less emboldened to take destabilising activities in the region.
"We will reduce the pressure for a regional arms race... this agreement is a critical step in ensuring greater security in the Gulf," he said.
The deal marked a major breakthrough in a 12-year standoff between Iran and the West, which has long feared Tehran wants to build an atomic bomb, despite Iran's denials.
Saudi Arabia worries that if too much of Iran's nuclear programme is left intact it will still have the ability to obtain an atomic bomb, and there have been concerns that Riyadh could seek its own nuclear capability.