WASHINGTON After years condemning U.S. interventionism in the Middle East, President Donald Trump stunned the world last week by escalating American involvement in Syrias six-year civil war. But Trump has also been quietly preparing to boost the U.S. role in a war on the other side of the troubled region specifically in Yemen, an impoverished nation where 17 million people do not know where their next meal will come from and where all sides of a two-year civil war are implicated in alleged war crimes.

The Trump administration is slowly ramping up support to a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed militants, according to government sources, advocates and analysts. In the weeks ahead, they believe, Trump will approve a major transfer of bombs to Saudi Arabia, and may greenlight a coalition assault on Hodeidah , an essential port for food imports. Such a move would worsen the humanitarian crisis and damage United Nations efforts to negotiate a political solution.

A week and a day ago, it looked inevitable and imminent, Scott Paul, a senior humanitarian policy adviser at Oxfam America, said Tuesday of the move on the port. It seems as if the combination of humanitarian concerns and more recently airstrikes in Syria seems to have at least diverted attention in the administration, but there is going to come a time when the eye goes back to Yemen.

Katherine Zimmerman, an expert at the Republican-leaning American Enterprise Institute think tank, said coalition representatives went to recent meetings like a summit between Trump and the Saudi defense minister with arguments tailored toward Trumps stated goal of weakening Iranian influence.

They brought clear requests for tactical support, including lifting the Obama-era hold on the weapons transfer, providing more intelligence and logistical help, and increasing the U.S. involvement in the seas around Yemen, where the Iran-linked militia, the Houthis, has targeted American, Saudi and Emirati vessels. They came with a very good engagement strategy and understood that the U.S. was open to suggestions, Zimmerman said.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reportedly wants to provide some help to the Saudis and their close ally in the coalition, the United Arab Emirates, in their effort to take Hodeidah, though he has stopped short of recommending a deployment of American Special Operations forces. Coalition forces have been advancing on the city in recent days, apparently in the hopes of reaching its outskirts before the holy Muslim month of Ramadan begins in early June, and then attacking after Ramadan, Zimmerman said.

Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump declined to answer an emailed question about potential Defense Department involvement in planning for Hodeidah, citing force protection concerns. He also refused to comment on whether the U.S. would begin targeting the Houthi militia.

Stump said the current deployment of American support is still where it was under the Obama administration, which approved major assistance to the Saudi-led coalition in terms of aerial refueling that enabled the coalitions bloody bombing campaign and other logistical aid.

Four U.S. Air Force personnel, who have long been assigned to Saudi Arabia as part of an air defense liaison team, continue a narrow range of functions related to the Yemen conflict to include coordinating refueling, facilitating checks of a no-strike list, and sharing intelligence related to defense of the Saudi-Yemen border, Stump told HuffPost. The U.S. militarys support remains in a non-combat advisory and coordinating role.

And a source in Congress, which must receive a notification of Trumps approval of the weapons transfer to the Saudis, told HuffPost that notification had not arrived yet, despite a blessing for the move from the State Department last month.

But the stasis in Washington doesnt prevent the U.S.-backed coalition and others from moving forward in ways that could limit Trumps ability to shape events and threaten both the United States long-term goals in Yemen and the countrys desperate civilian population.

The Saudis, for instance, feel more certain of American support than they have since the beginning of the war.