Saudis tout humanitarian record in Yemen amid Washington backlash
Saudi Arabia’s top aid official is in the United States to convince lawmakers and the US aid agency that it has Yemenis’ best interests at heart.
Saudi Arabia dispatched its top humanitarian aid official to Washington this week amid a growing US backlash against the kingdom’s war in Yemen.
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Raabeah, the head of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Center (KSrelief), is making the rounds with policymakers, journalists and think-tank experts to tout the country’s relief efforts amid what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. In an exclusive interview with Al-Monitor in between meetings with Senate staffers and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Raabeah defended Riyadh’s record in Yemen.
“I don’t want anybody to think that Saudi Arabia wants any harm for Yemen,” Raabeah told Al-Monitor. “Saudi Arabia is there to help Yemenis. We’re there to see stability, to see safety.”
In particular, the Saudi official is making the case that international assistance should be relocated to new ports away from rebel-controlled areas, including in Saudi Arabia. The push comes amid increasing US and international resistance to Riyadh’s de facto blockade of Yemen’s largest port, Hodeidah, which is in Houthi hands.
