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Most of the detainees have been released, but Yemeni rebels remain unsure of the number of U.S. embassy staff in Sanaa, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. has called on Yemeni Houthi rebels to release an unspecified number of Yemenis detained working for the U.S. embassy in the capital Sanaa.
The compound served as the first embassy – operations were moved to Saudi Arabia years ago, which is why The war in Yemen – has been violated, a State Department spokesman told the AFP news agency on Thursday.
Most of the detainees have been released, but the rebels continue to detain Yemeni staff at the embassy, a spokesman said.
“We are concerned that Yemeni staff at the U.S. embassy in Sanaan remain unaccompanied and we demand their immediate release,” the official said, urging the Houthis to “immediately empty” the compound and return all the seized goods.
The US transferred embassy operations to Riyadh in 2015 due to the Yemeni civil war.
Conflict It erupted in late 2014 when the Houthis took over large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa. It intensified in March 2015 when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates assembled a US-backed military coalition with the aim of restoring the government of Riyadh-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Saudi Arabia considers Houthi to be a representative of Iran, a denunciation rejected by both the rebels and Tehran.
It has been driven by war the terrible humanitarian crisisIt is based on the survival of about 30 percent of Yemen’s 30 million people.
United Nations he said last year about 233,000 people died as a result of the conflict.
In a speech Tuesday, State Department spokesman Ned Price he said The Biden administration was “very concerned” about the arrests of U.S. embassy staff in Sanaa.
“We have seen some progress and we continue to work on this critical issue. The majority of those arrested are not in custody, ”Price told reporters, without giving the exact number of employees arrested or why.
“We are committed to ensuring the safety of those who serve the U.S. government abroad, which is why we are so actively involved in this issue, including through our international partners,” he said.
Earlier this year, US President Joe Biden announced Ending U.S. support for “offensive operations” in Yemen by Yemen, including “significant arms sales”.
Washington last week He approved a $ 650 million sale airstrikes in Riyadh, the Pentagon said on Nov. 4 that a move would “protect U.S. foreign policy and U.S. national security by helping improve the security of a friendly country that remains a major political force. and economic progress in the Middle East.”
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