Saudi foreign minister compares Yemen intervention to Mexican-American war as Trump pushes arms sales

Adel al-Jubier, the Saudi Foreign Minister has said relations with the US as "at an all-time high” and justified the deadly war on the Middle East’s poorest country by comparing to a Mexican threat to America.

"What would you do if militias tried to take over Mexico and started lobbing missiles at you? Sit there and take it?" Jubeir told Journalists in Washington.

The comments came as US President Donald Trump promised to kick-start long-stalled arms deals signed with Saudi Arabia earlier this year, during a meeting with the Yemen war architect Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Washington on Tuesday.

Trump vowed to speed up the transactions and deliver a sizeable new arsenal including C-130 transport aircraft, Bradley armoured personnel carriers, anti-submarine Poseidon jets and air missile defence systems.

Last May, Washington and Riyadh inked a multi-billion dollar military deal during Trump’s first official trip abroad as President of the United States to the kingdom - a move widely seen as an attempt to solidify an alliance that was somewhat fractured by the previous Barack Obama administration.

Sources confirmed to The New Arab at the time that the deal would stretch past the $350 billion mark over the coming ten years, while other agreements were signed on increased economic cooperation.

Trump received the crown prince at the White House, the start of a three-week, seven-city trip for bin Salman around the US. 

"It is an honour to have the crown prince of Saudi Arabia with us," Trump said with bin Salman across the table from him. "The relationship is probably the strongest it's ever been - we understand each other."

"We really have a great friendship, a great relationship," he added.

The Saudi and Emirati attempt to warm up to Trump has been scrutinised by analysts.

Too close for comfort

But the Saudi and Emirati attempt to warm up to Trump has been scrutinised by analysts.

“The Saudi relationship with the White House has never been stronger, but the broader relationship with the United States is not on as firm a ground. They’ve put all their eggs in the Trump-Jared basket,” Andrew Bowen, a Gulf affairs specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank told the Wall Street Journal.

“It’s a really risky strategy. Their US relationship has become hyper-partisan, and by playing domestic politics they run the risk of being burned by the next administration.”

UAE ambassador Yousef al-Otaiba laid this in part to the US and Israeli shared vision with his country and Riyadh on foreign policy issues and alleged extremism - referencing the Muslim Brotherhood and militant groups.

“We are now working with the Trump administration that is trying very hard to roll back Iranian influence in the region. That is a priority for us. We see eye to eye on the threat that Iran poses not just to the Gulf but to the US, to Israel, to stability.”

"What would you do if militias tried to take over Mexico and started lobbing missiles at you? Sit there and take it?" Jubeir told Journalists in Washington.

US continues to support Yemen war

The high-profile meeting between the two allies coincided with a US senate vote on Tuesday that rejected a bipartisan bid to end American involvement in Yemen's civil war, voting down a rare effort to overrule presidential military authorisation.

MBS, who also serves as the kingdom’s defence minister, spearheaded the war on Yemen’s Houthis in 2015, bringing together a Saudi-led coalition to intervene in the neighbouring country.

The US has provided weapons, intelligence and aerial refuelling to the coalition supporting Yemen's government against Iran-backed rebels.

Some US lawmakers have long expressed concern about the conflict, where civilian casualties from coalition airstrikes have drawn criticism from rights groups.

But last week, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis asked Congress not to interfere with America's role in the war, warning that restrictions could increase civilian casualties, jeopardise counterterrorism cooperation, and "reduce our influence with the Saudis."

More than 10,000 people have been killed and tens of thousands wounded in Yemen's three-year-old war, which is seen as both a civil conflict and a proxy war between regional titans Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The United Nations has described it as the world's largest humanitarian disaster.