Kerry will discuss with Saudi Arabia ‘pause’ in Yemen war

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that he would talk with Saudi Arabian officials to consider temporary halts in airstrikes against Yemen in a bid to facilitate humanitarian aid operations.

"I will be there in Saudi Arabia tonight,” Kerry said on Wednesday. “We will be discussing the nature of the [humanitarian] pause and how it might be implemented."

Kerry made the remarks while he was in the African nation of Djibouti, home to the main US military base on the continent, just across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

"We are deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation that is unfolding in Yemen,” he claimed.

He also announced $68 million in new US assistance to help meet a growing need for food, water and shelter in Yemen.

The top US diplomat said Washington was giving $2 million to help Djibouti deal with an influx of Yemeni refugees.

Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemen on March 26, causing thousands of people in the country to flee to Djibouti.

Riyadh launched its air campaign against the Ansarullah fighters of the Houthi movement, without a United Nations mandate, in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Washington has been a key supporter of Riyadh aggression in Yemen, providing logistical and intelligence support to Saudi airstrikes. It has also dispatched its warships near the war-torn country.

The UN has repeatedly warned that the country faces a major humanitarian crisis.

Last month, an Iranian cargo aircraft carrying medical aid and foodstuff could not land at the international airport in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and was forced to return due to Saudi warplanes’ violent airstrikes against the runway of the civil airport.

The plane had received permits from Omani and Yemeni aviation officials to cross into Yemen’s airspace.

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