Trump slams attack on Saudi in call with king

Monitoring Desk

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump “expressed solidarity” with Saudi Arabia Wednesday following a missile attack targeting the official residence of King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, the White House said.

Houthi rebels carried out a missile attack on Riyadh on Tuesday, targeting the capital’s al-Yamama royal palace, which houses the king’s offices.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the rebels says it intercepted the missile.

In a readout of Trump’s call with Salman, the White House said the attack was “enabled by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps”.

“King Salman updated President Trump on the situation and briefed the President on Saudi Arabia’s plan to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” the White House said.

“The leaders discussed the importance of engaging the United Nations to hold Iran accountable for its repeated violations of international law and agreed on the importance of reinvigorating a political process to end the war in Yemen.”

The missile fired Tuesday was the second to be fired at Riyadh from the Yemeni territory within the last two months.

On Nov. 4, the Saudi-led coalition announced it had successfully intercepted a Houthi missile fired at Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport.

Yemen has remained dogged by violence and chaos since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa. The conflict escalated one year later after Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

The Saudi-led coalition has imposed a biting economic blockade on the country, worsening an already dire humanitarian crisis there.

Prior to the conflict, Yemen was already the poorest nation in the Arab world.