Washington, November 18: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates planned to host talks with the Saudi deputy defense minister on Tuesday, the Pentagon said, as Saudi forces kept up an offensive against rebels in Yemen.
Prince Khaled bin Sultan, Saudi deputy minister of defense and aviation, was scheduled to meet Gates in Washington to “discuss a range of bilateral defense and regional security issues,” press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
Riyadh has vowed to continue air strikes and shelling against rebel forces until the Zaidi Shiite rebels withdraw tens of kilometers (miles) from the Saudi-Yemeni border.
The visit comes a day after Yemeni and Saudi forces pounded Shiite rebel positions along the border between the two countries, witnesses and military officials said.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly considered ordering 72 F-15 jets to bolster its fighter fleet, according to DoD Buzz, an online defense publication.
A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Saudis had made no formal request for the F-15s.
Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, on Sunday accused Washington of masterminding Saudi Arabia’s bombing of Shiite Yemeni rebels, parliament’s website reported.
“The deplorable events in the Muslim nation of Yemen which have intensified over the past two weeks and the Saudi interference in Yemen through repeated bombings by warplanes is astonishing,” Larijani was quoted as telling deputies.
He accused the United States of being behind the bombing, saying: “Reports indicated that the government of the United States is cooperating in the oppressive measures.”
The Zaidis are the majority community in north Yemen, but they complain of widespread government persecution against them in the country.
—Agencies