US, Saudi talk to bolster defence
Agencies | Riyadh / Washington
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Top Saudi and US officials yesterday held talks to bolster Saudi Arabia’s defences, strongly condemning the Houthi attacks.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud “discussed joint efforts to bolster Saudi defences against attacks on the Kingdom,” the US State Department said in a statement yesterday.
During the phone call, Blinken reiterated Washington’s condemnation of Wednesday’s attack on the Abha airport that caused a civilian airplane to catch on fire.
Saudi state media and the state department said the two ministers also discussed the need to find a political solution to the war in Yemen.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi forces in Yemen said the Houthi drone was indeed a replica of the Iranian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), “Ababil T”.
“Remnants of the wreckage show that the explosive drone is of the Qasef type, which is a replica of the Iranian UAV, Ababil T,” the Saudi embassy in the US tweeted.
Thwarts new missile attack Meanwhile, coalition yesterday said it thwarted and destroyed a ballistic missile that Yemen’s Houthis launched towards Khamis Mushait in Saudi Arabia, state media reported.
The coalition spokesman also said early yesterday that the coalition had thwarted an explosives-laden drone launched by the Iran-aligned Houthis towards the same city.
The US condemns attack Earlier, in a strongly worded statement, the White House condemned the attack which also coincided with US Special Envoy Lenderking’s first trip to the region.
The US President Joe Biden last week named veteran US diplomat Tim Lenderking as a US special envoy to Yemen in a bid to step up American diplomacy to end the war
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