In Yemen conflict, a window into deepening U.S.-Gulf ties

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis greeted Saudi Arabia's foreign minister at the Pentagon last month, the first thing he did was joke about the time "the Iranians tried to murder you."

Mattis' reference to a foiled 2011 plot, denied by Iran, was a telling sign of how much more aligned President Donald Trump's administration is with Gulf allies about what they perceive to be the Iranian threat, a shift that seems to be setting the stage for greater U.S. involvement in Yemen, in particular.