US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, have agreed on the importance of ‘de-escalation in military operations’ in Yemen amid United Nations’ peace efforts to end the conflict.
The Iranian-allied Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government agreed during peace talks in Sweden in December on a ceasefire in Hodeidah and to withdraw troops from the strategic Red Sea Port city.
Pompeo is in Saudi Arabia on the latest leg of his regional tour, with the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the blockade of neighbouring Qatar expected to be high on the agenda.
The top US diplomat arrived in the Saudi capital early on Monday, and is also set to meet King Salman bin Abdul Aziz.
Pompeo met Qatari officials a day earlier in Doha, where he called for an end to the 19-month blockade of the Gulf state by a quartet of Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the UAE.
