Ambassador Jamila Ali Raja raises Houthi escalation with US Assistant Secretary Donald Blome
Yemen Herald News 
WASHINGTON, United States — Yemen’s ambassador to the United States raised Houthi attacks on Yemeni and Saudi sites in talks with a senior US diplomat on Sunday, the state news agency Saba reported.
Jamila Ali Raja met Donald Blome, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, in the American capital, the agency said.
The two discussed recent political and security developments in Yemen, according to Saba.
Yemen Herald could not independently verify the account of the meeting. Saba is the Yemeni government’s own news agency, and no independent confirmation of the talks has been published.
Raja said Iran had supplied the Houthis with advanced weapons and military capabilities, Saba reported.
She accused the group of recruiting children and sending them to front lines.
She said the Houthis had struck Maashiq Palace in Aden, Aden International Airport and Marib governorate, along with civilian and vital sites in Saudi Arabia.
Those actions violate international humanitarian law and threaten regional security, she said.
The Houthis dispute such characterisations and say their operations target military objectives. The group did not respond publicly to the ambassador’s remarks.
Raja praised what she described as the resilience of residents of Taiz and the unity of popular resistance forces in the city.
She called Taiz a symbol of national steadfastness and cited what she said was Yemenis’ determination to restore the state and its institutions.
She urged closer coordination between regional and international efforts and the Yemeni government.
The aim, she said, should be to restore the state, end the Houthi takeover and counter Iran’s influence in the country.
Blome offered condolences over the attack on Maashiq Palace, Saba said.
He said the United States was closely monitoring Yemen’s political and security situation.
He condemned Houthi violations against Yemenis and attacks on civilian and vital sites in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, according to the agency.
Blome reaffirmed US support for the Yemeni government in the face of Houthi threats, Saba reported.
He also backed efforts to ease the humanitarian impact of the conflict, the agency said.
Blome assumed the post of assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs in August.
He served as US ambassador to Pakistan from 2022 to 2025 and as ambassador to Tunisia from 2019 to 2022.
He was acting assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research before moving to the Near Eastern affairs bureau, and was US consul general in Jerusalem from 2015 to 2018.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced his nomination on July 22. He was nominated by President Donald Trump.
The bureau he leads covers US policy across the Middle East and North Africa, including Yemen.
Raja took up the Washington post this year. She took the oath of office before Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council.
She has also met Rep. Mike Lawler, who chairs the House subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa. Lawler said the two discussed conditions in Yemen.
Maashiq Palace is the presidential compound in Aden and a seat of the internationally recognised government.
A Houthi missile attack on the compound killed five people and wounded 16, Yemeni Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh said in remarks reported by Al Arabiya.
The UN Security Council condemned escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia in a statement issued in mid-October.
The statement was released by the Council president, Evangelos Sekeris of Greece. It described strikes on Riyadh’s airport as reckless.
The Council also condemned Houthi attacks and threats against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
It affirmed Saudi Arabia’s inherent right to self-defence under international law.
Riyadh’s international airport had been targeted 20 times since the start of October, Al Arabiya reported. The Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted a missile near Medina.
Aden International Airport is the main airport serving the southern port city.
Marib governorate, in central Yemen, holds much of the country’s oil and gas infrastructure.
Taiz, Yemen’s third city, has been encircled by Houthi forces for much of the war.
The war began in 2014, when Houthi forces seized Sanaa. A Saudi-led coalition intervened the following March on the side of the government.
The internationally recognised government has operated from Aden and from Riyadh since.
The Presidential Leadership Council was formed in April 2022 and is chaired by al-Alimi.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in March 2026 that more than 22 million Yemenis need humanitarian assistance.
That plan put the number of acutely food insecure people at 18.3 million.
It listed more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, including 516,157 severe cases.
OCHA counted 5.2 million internally displaced people.
The office sought $2.16 billion for the year to reach 12 million people.
The United States suspended embassy operations in Sanaa in 2015 and has since handled Yemen affairs from Saudi Arabia.
Blome’s bureau covers the Gulf states as well as Yemen.
Yemen’s government has pressed foreign governments and multilateral bodies to designate the Houthis a terrorist organisation.
Saba did not say whether the two officials discussed any specific American assistance.
Yemen Herald found no State Department readout of the meeting.
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