…Pompeo and Mattis call for end to Saudi-led war in Yemen***
US President Donald Trump has launched a fresh assault on the US media, saying he has “forcefully condemned hatred and bigotry” but this goes unreported.
Speaking at a rally in Florida ahead of next week’s mid-term elections, he said a third of Americans believed that the media was “the enemy of the people”.
He did not provide evidence for this.
Critics accuse him of fomenting violence by using extreme and divisive rhetoric against opponents, the media, immigrants and Muslims.
Earlier this week Mr Trump offered condolences at a synagogue in Pennsylvania where 11 Jewish worshippers were shot dead at the weekend.
The White House has rejected any blame over the attack at the Tree of Life temple in Pittsburgh and the alleged gunman was not a Trump supporter.
However, a man arrested last week in connection with a mail-bombing campaign aimed at critics of Mr Trump had pictures of the president covering the windows of his van.
What did Trump say?
Addressing supporters in Estero, Mr Trump told them that the media “doesn’t want you to hear your story”.
“We have forcefully condemned hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice in all of its ugly forms,” he said.
“But the media doesn’t want you to hear your story, it’s not my story, it’s your story.
And that’s why thirty-three percent of the people in this country believe the fake news is in fact, and I hate to say this, in fact the enemy of the people.”
Mr Trump has regularly accused some sections of the media of misrepresenting his administration’s work.
In July the publisher of the New York Times urged him to stop calling reporters “enemies of the people”, saying it would “lead to violence” against the media.
In the meantime, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and said U.N.-led negotiations to end the civil war should begin next month.
In a statement released Tuesday, Pompeo said missile and drone strikes by Iran-allied Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should stop, and the Saudi-led coalition must cease airstrikes in all populated areas of Yemen.ated
Yemen is one of the poorest Arab countries and faces the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by a nearly four-year-old war that pits the Houthis against the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the West.
“The time is now for the cessation of hostilities, including missile and UAV strikes from Houthi-controlled areas into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” Pompeo said, using an acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles.
“Subsequently, coalition airstrikes must cease in all populated areas in Yemen,” he added.
The United States helps the coalition by refueling its jets and providing training in targeting. Pompeo said last month that he had certified to the Congress that Saudi Arabia and the UAE were working to reduce civilian casualties in Yemen.
Three-quarters of Yemen’s population, or 22 million people, require aid and 8.4 million people are on the brink of starvation.
U.N. special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said earlier this month that the United Nations hoped to resume consultations between the warring sides by November.
Both Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis voiced support for the U.N. effort.
Mattis, addressing a forum in Washington on Tuesday, defended U.S. efforts to help reduce casualties by the Saudi-led coalition and said all sides needed to take meaningful steps toward a cease-fire and negotiations in the next 30 days.
Mattis added that the Saudis and Emiratis appeared ready to embrace efforts by Griffiths to find a negotiated solution to the conflict.
“We’ve got to move toward a peace effort here. And we can’t say we’re going to do it sometime in the future. We need to be doing this in the next 30 days,” Mattis said.
Pompeo said the consultations planned by Griffiths should start in November “to implement confidence-building measures to address the underlying issues of the conflict, the demilitarization of borders, and the concentration of all large weapons under international observation.”
A cessation of hostilities and resumption of a political track would help ease the humanitarian crisis, Pompeo said.
BBC with additional report from NBC
