Hosting Saudi Arabia's new monarch for the first time, President Barack Obama today said that the US shares King Salman's desire for an inclusive government in Yemen that can relieve that impoverished Arab country's humanitarian crisis.
Their talks also addressed the Iran nuclear deal, a source of lingering tension in the US-Saudi relationship.
Since March, the US has been supporting a Saudi-led intervention against Yemen's Iran-aided Shiite rebels, who have chased the country's US-recognised president into exile.
But the Obama administration is concerned about the conflict's rising death toll that is now in the thousands, while aid groups lament their inability to provide life-saving support to all Yemenis in need.
"We share concerns about Yemen and the need to restore a function government that is inclusive and that can relieve the humanitarian situation there," Obama told reporters who were allowed into the Oval Office for brief comments from both leaders.
The meeting, Obama noted, was taking place at a "challenging time in world affairs, particularly in the Middle East."
On Friday, 22 members of the United Arab Emirates' military were killed while fighting the rebels known as the Houthis, the official news agency WAM said. It was believed to be the country's highest number of military casualties since its founding in 1971. Pro-government Yemeni security officials said the troops were killed when a Houthi missile hit a weapons storage depot.
Beyond Yemen, Saudi Arabia wants the U.S. To increase support for Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State and seeking to topple President Bashar Assad's embattled government after four-and-a-half years of civil war. And the Saudis want assurances from the US that the Iran nuclear deal comes with a broader effort to counter Iran's destabilizing activities in the region.
