Exiled Yemen president goes to UAE as port attack looms
Yemen’s exiled president was due to visit the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday to patch up relations ahead of an anticipated assault on the rebel-held port of Hodeida.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s trip to Abu Dhabi comes amid months of tensions between his forces and fighters backed by the UAE, which have clashed on a number of occasions. Both are part of the Saudi-led coalition that has been at war with Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015.
The two sides were also at odds over the recent deployment of UAE forces to the Yemen’s Arabian Sea island of Socotra, a dispute mediated by Saudi officials.
Over 10,000 people have been Yemen’s exiled president was due to visit the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday to patch up relations ahead of an anticipated assault on the rebelheld port of Hodeida.
killed in Yemen’s civil war. The Saudi-led coalition has been criticized for its airstrikes killing civilians. Meanwhile, the UN and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons from assault
rifles up to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.
Yemen’s government-controlled SABA news agency announced Hadi’s trip, saying it came after Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited him at his home in Riyadh, where he lives in self-imposed exile.
Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash also wrote several tweets Tuesday night suggesting an attack on Hodeida was imminent.
“The liberation of the city & port will create a new reality & bring the Houthis to the negotiations,” he wrote.
Earlier Tuesday, Yemeni officials said the UN had pulled its international staff out of Hodeida, a crucial Red Sea port city now controlled by the Houthis. The officials said the UN’s operations centre there was still being manned by local staff.
The port is some 150 kilometres southwest of Sanaa, the rebel-held capital. The officials spoke on condition in anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters.