Yemeni security officials say the Saudi-led coalition has launched fresh airstrikes on Shi'ite rebels in two cities, a day after the kingdom declared an end to its month-long air campaign targeting the Iran-backed rebels and their allies.
The instability in Yemen requires much more work there and in the entire Middle East region, the White House said on Wednesday.
"Obviously, the job is not done," Jen Psaki, White House communications director, said on CNN. "... There's a lot of work that needs to be done and we're going to be doubling down and continuing to work on that with our partners around the world.''
Yemeni officials said coalition forces struck at the central city of Taiz, where the rebels, known, as Houthis, had gathered at a military headquarters they control near the old airport to the city's southeast.
Airstrikes also hit the southern port city of Aden, blasting rebel forces in outlying districts there. Street fighting continued in both cities, especially Taiz, where combat with rebels left dozens killed on both sides.
Saudi Arabia's leading role against the Houthis has turned Yemen into the latest theater of a regional proxy conflict between the Gulf's leading Sunni Muslim and Shi'ite Muslim powers – a struggle also playing out in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
Earlier Wednesday morning, U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan had encouraged using the declared pause in air raids to discuss a peaceful resolution to the upheaval.
"We strongly urge all Yemeni parties, in particular the Houthis and their supporters, to take this opportunity to return to these negotiations as part of the political dialogue," Meehan said in a statement that also praised Saudi Arabia's $274 million commitment of humanitarian relief for Yemen.
After the bombing resumed, Psaki said all parties in the Yemen conflict need to come together to reach a diplomatic solution.
"There is no other solution that's going to work,'' she told CNN. "This is not a war that can be fought on the battlefield.''
But Meehan's statement also said the U.S. would "continue to closely monitor terrorist threats posed by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and to take action as necessary to disrupt continuing, immentnt threats to the United States and our citizens."
Hadi speech
In Saudi Arabia Tuesday, Hadi gave a televised address saying the crisis in his country will end "soon." He also thanked the Saudi-led coalition and said his government will restore hope to the people of Yemen.
"I express the deepest gratitude and respect to our Arab and Muslim brothers and friends in this exceptional alliance in my name and on behalf of the Yemeni people," Hadi said.
An image from Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television shows Yemen's exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in a televised speech from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, April 21, 2015.
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"The alliance that supported [the government's] legitimacy which responded to the calls of Yemenis to serve its interests. A people who are looking to live and restore their state, this is why this was the primary objective of Operations Decisive Storm," he added.
Iran
Iran, which supports the Houthis, had welcomed the declared halt to airstrikes as the end to "killing innocent and defenseless civilians" and called the move a "step forward" toward a political resolution.
Obama on Tuesday said the U.S. government has told Iran that any weapons shipments to the Houthis would be a "problem."
"We're not sending obscure messages, we send them very direct messages about it," Obama said in an interview on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. "My hope is generally that we can settle down the situation in Yemen."
The aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed toward the Gulf of Aden off the Yemeni coast Tuesday to join other U.S. warships to ensure vital Gulf shipping lanes remain open.
Some material for this report came from AP, Luis Ramirez contributed to this report from the White House.
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