National security adviser Jake Sullivan is in Riyadh to discuss “significant progress” in efforts to achieve peace in Yemen.
United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and assessed what the White House called “significant progress” in the Yemen peace effort, the White House said.
During a trip aimed at strengthening sometimes tense ties with Riyadh, Sullivan also held joint talks with the Crown Prince, UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan and India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval “to share their shared vision of a safer and prosperous region in the Middle East, connected to India and the world,” the White House said.
Sullivan’s meeting came after a period in which U.S.-Saudi ties were damaged by oil production cuts by Saudi Arabian-led OPEC+ and the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“He discussed the significant progress in talks to further consolidate the now 15-month-long ceasefire in Yemen and welcomed the continued UN-led effort to bring the war to an end, as well as a range of other issues,” the statement said. of the White House. .
At the rally on Sunday, Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s top national security aide, also thanked the crown prince for Saudi support for US citizens during evacuations from Sudan, the statement said.
US special envoy Tim Lenderking traveled to Oman and Saudi Arabia earlier this month to promote peace efforts in Yemen, the State Department said.
A Saudi Arabian-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after Iran-linked Houthis removed the government from the capital Sanaa.
A Saudi delegation, seeking a permanent ceasefire, concluded peace talks with the Houthi group in Sanaa in mid-April, whose top negotiator said talks had progressed and further talks would be held .
The conflict in Yemen, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people and sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, is widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
A senior Israeli security official said Friday that Israel hoped for a breakthrough in efforts to normalize ties with Saudi Arabia during Sullivan’s visit there.
The White House statement made no mention of Israel.