The US needs to put more diplomatic focus on Yemen, Washington's former envoy to the country said on Friday, as the Houthi rebels make major advances.Tim Lenderking, who served as special envoy for Yemen during former president Joe Biden's administration, said that interested parties need to act now to halt Houthi expansion.“They need more support politically, and at the end of the day, they're going to need more support militarily,” Mr Lenderking said during a webinar hosted by the Middle East Institute in Washington.His comments come after the Houthis took control of Yemen's entire western coast, including Mokha port and the strategically important island of Perim, giving them dominance over the Bab Al Mandeb strait.Saudi Arabia, which led a Gulf coalition against the Houthis starting in 2015, has been trading strikes with the Houthis in response to the group's expansion. Following "multiple" unattributed strikes, Riyadh announced on Friday it was shutting down its vital East-West pipeline.Mr Lenderking said that the US approach to Yemen has been decidedly laissez-faire diplomatically speaking since President Donald Trump returned to office, and that that needs to change. “This administration also came in asking the question, what can Yemen do for us? Well, Yemen can spoil our day,” he said.And the most recent Houthi advance shows just how much. The group's control over the...
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