US report: Washington's support for Saudi and Emirati air campaign in Yemen amounted to $300 million

A US report has shown that Saudi Arabia has yet to pay a $15 million bill for US aid in its air campaign against the Houthis in Yemen, and continues to delay payment even as defence contracts between the two countries remain active.

According to a report by the American website The Intercept , the cost of support provided to Saudi and Emirati forces between March 2015 and November 2018 amounted to $300 million - a large portion of which has already been settled, but some of the bill remains unpaid.

These costs are mostly due to refueling operations that have enabled the Saudi and Emirati air forces to carry out their years-long air campaign against the Houthis in support of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.

Documents obtained by The Intercept show that US military officials racked up a $15 million bill with their Saudi counterparts from 2022 onwards.

The documents indicated that although the Saudis acknowledged the outstanding debts during a meeting held in March 2022, they did not adhere to the deadline set for payment in December.

In a subsequent meeting more than a year later, Saudi military officials denied any knowledge of the unpaid debts, according to the document.

The Intercept reported that the Pentagon has not yet responded to its repeated questions about the bill.

For the past three years, the United States has banned the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia because of the scale of civilian casualties caused by its bombing campaign in Yemen.

In recent years, Riyadh has become a cornerstone of US policy in the Middle East, with the Biden administration trying to foster normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

These efforts have largely stalled since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, as Saudi Arabia has stressed that any normalization can only occur alongside the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

In April, Saudi Arabia reportedly helped the United States and Israel shoot down a series of Iranian ballistic missiles and drones launched by Tehran in response to an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic building in Damascus.