Defense Secretary Jim Mattis defended U.S. military support to Saudi Arabian-led coalition forces in Yemen on Thursday as he explained a personal appeal to lawmakers who are considering whether to end Washington’s involvement in the devastating conflict.

It took Seham Ali Ibrahim one month to make the dangerous journey from her village near the frontline town of al-Heiss to the relative safety of Yemen’s western coast areas, often traveling by foot across battle lines.

Britain and Saudi Arabia want to strengthen a United Nations inspection regime for ships headed to Yemen, the British foreign minister said after meeting his Saudi counterpart in London.

Russia vetoed Monday a UN draft resolution presented by Britain and strongly backed by the United States that would have pressured Iran over its failure to block supplies of missiles to Yemen's Huthi rebels.

France has shown no concrete signs of reducing or suspending weapons sales to a Saudi-led coalition despite warnings that some of its weapons could be used in the war in Yemen, sources aware of the issue said on Friday.

The United States welcomed reports that four U.S.-funded cranes operated by the United Nations World Food Programme were unloading supplies in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Hodeidah port.

At least 11 people were killed on Tuesday in a suicide car bomb attack on a checkpoint in southeastern Yemen run by local forces backed by the United Arab Emirates, officials and residents said.

Yemen’s internationally-recognized government said on Saturday it had banned public gatherings in Aden ahead of a deadline given by southern separatists to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to dismiss the cabinet.

The United Nations said on Monday that its mediator for Yemen will step down next month after nearly three years trying to end the country's conflict.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that he discussed the issues of Bahrain and Yemen in his meeting with his British counterpart Boris Johnson.

Saudi news agency affirmed that a warplane affiliated to Saudi Arabia’s air forces in Yemen crashed on Sunday (January 7, 2018), after the Yemeni armed forces announced shooting down a warplane in Saada province.

The chief of staff of the Yemeni army has been injured by a land mine that went off while he was visiting the northern al-Jouf province, where heavy fighting between government forces and Houthi fighters is underway, a senior government official said.

The Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen has denied blocking aid and basic supplies from entering, following a Reuters story detailing how Yemen is struggling to cope with a new outbreak of the bacterial disease diphtheria.

The United States on Thursday said it welcomed an announcement by a Saudi-led coalition to keep the Hodeidah port in Yemen open for a month and allow humanitarian aid to flow through, and condemned a Houthi bombing of a palace in Saudi Arabia.

Warring sides must let more aid get through to 8.4 million people who are "a step away from famine" in Yemen, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that Yemenis would make those attacking their country regret their actions as a Saudi-led coalition pounded the rebel-held capital with heavy air strikes.

A ballistic missile fired by Yemen's armed Houthi group at Saudi Arabia was shot down on Thursday near the south-western city of Khamis Mushait, the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel reported.

Humanitarian aid workers and medical supplies began arriving in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Saturday, U.N. officials said, after the easing of a nearly three-week military blockade that sparked an international outcry.

The Saudi-led coalition's blockade of Yemen, which has cut off food imports to a population where 7 million people are on the brink of famine, is "illegal collective punishment" of civilians, a prominent aid official said on Thursday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghasemi demanded Saudi Arabia to stop its war on Yemen and its military intervention in Bahrain and halt its pressing policies in Lebanon and Qatar.