Publish Date: 4 February 2024 - 04:20

New York, IRNA – A senior US official said following the attacks on Yemen late Saturday that President Joe Biden had personally approved the strikes but claimed that Washington was not seeking to escalate tensions in the Middle East.

The CNN news network quoted two senior officials of the Biden administration as saying that the president had given the green light for the attacks on Yemen on Saturday.

“These attacks are separate from the measures the United States took on Friday in Syria and Iraq and that the actions are to defend American and international commercial ships in the Red Sea”, CNN quoted a US government official.

This official also claimed that the United States does not want to escalate tensions and these attacks are direct response to the actions of Yemen's Ansarullah Movement.

The US attacks came as Biden was visiting his election campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

US Central Command in the Middle East known as CENTCOM announced late on Saturday that America, with the support of Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, Holland and New Zealand attacked 36 positions and targets of the Yemeni army at 13 places across the country.

“The aim of these attacks is to reduce the ability of Yemen to continue their attacks on ships in the Red Sea, the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden” the CENTCOM statement said, referring to Yemen’s operations Israeli-owned or Israeli bound ships over the regime's bloodshed in the Gaza Strip as well as attacks on some American and British vessels in retaliation for their aggression against Yemen.

This is the third attack on Yemen by the forces of the so-called US-led coalition that was formed following a UN Security Council resolution aimed at protecting maritime trade in the Red Sea.

The coalition, however, keeps pounding Yemen without a mandate for such action and in violation of international law and the UN charter. The US-led actions have sparked international condemnations, including those from Russia and China, the two permanent members of the UN security council.

Yemen have targeted nearly three dozen ships destined for Israeli ports in occupied Palestine, despite constant threats and attacks by the United States and some of its western allies.

The Yemeni army says all ships except those owned by the Zionist regime or bound for pots in occupied Palestine are free to sail through the Red Sea. It says the measure will continue as long as Israel keeps massacring Palestinians and maintains its blockade on the Gaza Strip.  

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