The commander of US Central Command, General Kenneth McKinsey, said that his country had provided assistance to Saudi Arabia in defending itself during the recent wave of attacks on it.
In a statement to Al Jazeera, McKinsey said, "We did a number of things to help defend the kingdom," without explaining them.
"We will continue to help Saudi Arabia defend itself, and we have not waived this commitment, and we have helped them a lot over the past weeks," he added.
The Central Command commander explained that the recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia are not helpful and do not indicate their desire for a political settlement, noting at the same time that Saudi Arabia, in his appreciation, wants a political solution to the war in Yemen.
Commenting on the UAE's dismantling of its military base in Eritrea, and its redeployment of military equipment in Yemen and the Egyptian-Libyan border, according to the investigation revealed by the island Monday evening, McKinsey said, "This is an Emirati national affair; but we maintain close coordination with the Emirates."
On the other hand, General McKinsey revealed that his country was about to engage in a war with Iran in January 2020 after the attack on the Ain al-Assad base in Iraq, but that a year after the incident, "there is an opportunity to find a political way to move forward with Tehran."
On January 8, 2020, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard announced the targeting of Ain Al-Assad base, which includes American soldiers in the Iraqi Anbar province, with dozens of surface-to-surface missiles, in retaliation for the assassination of the Quds Force commander, Qassem Soleimani, in an American raid near Baghdad airport days earlier.
"We are still investigating the new attack on the Ain al-Asad base last week, and we will be ready to respond appropriately," McKinsey said.
"With Iran, it is difficult to evaluate the activities directed by a central decision, and those carried out by proxies without direct direction," he added, noting that the Iranians ship military components to the Houthis in Yemen, who are re-engineering and transforming them into different systems.
Regarding developments in the file of plans to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan, McKinsey indicated that the Taliban did not fulfill a number of conditions that allow us to consider reducing our forces there.