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Mattis departure risks US policy void as Yemen pact falls apart

Day-to-day responsibility for managing the Yemen conflict is being passed on to John Rood, the Pentagon’s No. 3 official.
Onlookers look at a car burnt down by a blast in the war-torn southwestern city of Taiz, Yemen January 22, 2019. REUTERS/Anees Mahyoub - RC1FAD2F1FA0

Just hours before the United Nations struck a Yemen cease-fire deal last month, then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made a whirlwind series of calls to Arab leaders to help clinch a pact that he’d privately and publicly pressed for months.

His successor plans to take a less direct role in trying to settle the conflict.

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