SANAA (Dispatches) – Head of Yemen's Supreme Revolutionary Committee has called on the U.S. to "learn from Vietnam" after Washington announced plans to deploy about 2,000 additional troops to Saudi Arabia.
An "increase in numbers does not mean victory,” Mohammed Ali al-Houthi warned in a series of tweets, adding the U.S. should also learn from its "useless wars” in countries such as Yemen and Iraq.
The official vowed that the Yemeni nation would continue its resistance against Saudi Arabia and other countries which are supported by the U.S. in their war on the impoverished nation.
"Your previous forces, weapons and military commanders, which proved that the US is killing the Yemeni people, did not frighten us,” he said.
"An increase in your numbers will surely not be a concern for us,” al-Houthi added.
The remarks came a few hours after Washington announced the deployment of 1,800 additional troops, two fighter squadrons, two Patriot batteries, and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) in the oil-rich kingdom.
The deployment follows a successful Yemeni drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Khurais and Abqaiq oil facilities last month in retaliation for the kingdom’s U.S.-backed aggression against the country.
On Friday, al-Houthi called on the United States to "surprise the world” and demonstrate the "little bit of humanity that they claim to have” by turning away from its "hostile policy” despite its role in "creating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world”.
"Such a policy has led to nothing but frustration and harm for you,” he added, referring to recent statements made by U.S. President Donald Trump highlighting the high costs of America’s wars in the Middle East.
The U.S. has been a major backer of a Saudi Arabia ever since it launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi movement.
Resistance by Yemen’s armed forces, led by the Houthi Ansarullah movement, has pushed the Saudi war to a stalemate, with Yemeni forces deploying increasingly sophisticated retaliatory attacks against the Saudis.
Meanwhile, according to reports Saudi Arabia has been holding talks with Yemen’s popular Houthi movement for the first time in more than two years in a sign that the kingdom is willing to end hostilities, The Financial Times reports. 
The "back-channel" negotiations began after the Houthis announced they would stop launching retaliatory drone and missile attacks against positions inside Saudi Arabia if Riyadh stopped its aggression, the paper said Saturday.
"There has been a lot of progress in the talks,” a Dubai-based political commentator was quoted as saying.
"We are now in the last five minutes of the Yemen war,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla told the British newspaper.
The paper, citing a Western diplomat, said the drone attacks on the Saudi oil facilities were key to the shift in Riyadh’s position.
"Another factor behind Riyadh’s shift has been the weakening of its coalition after the United Arab Emirates," it added.
The UAE is Saudi Arabia’s main ally in the military campaign against Yemen. But Abu Dhabi announced in July that it was drawing down its troop presence in Yemen.
The Saudi-led war has been deadlocked for years and experts have persistently said there is no military solution.
The U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 91,000  lives over the past four and a half years.
The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.