EXPLAINER: What US ending Saudi war support means for Yemen
Associated PressDUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Joe Biden’s announcement that the U.S. will end its support of a Saudi-led coalition’s yearslong war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels likely will increase pressure on the kingdom to end its campaign there. Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and other countries, entered the war alongside Yemen’s internationally recognized government in March 2015. The two nations became a unified Yemen in 1990, fought a civil war in 1994 and later came under the rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, a strongman who once described governing his nation’s myriad of tribal groups, militant groups and alliances as “dancing on the heads of snakes.” Saleh began losing his grip on power during the Arab Spring protests a decade ago. Meanwhile, the U.S. sold bombs and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia that the kingdom later used in strikes on Yemen that also killed civilians.