Coalition downs six drones launched by Houthis
RIYADH: The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi group in Yemen said it had intercepted six explosive drones fired towards the kingdom on Friday.
The Iran-aligned Houthis have recently stepped up cross-border drone and missile attacks on Saudi cities, mostly targeting the southern part of the country. The coalition says it intercepts most attacks.
The Houthis fired the six intercepted drones towards Khamis Mushait near the Yemen border in attacks since dawn, the coalition said in statements carried by Saudi state news agency SPA and Ekhbariya TV.
The United States and United Nations have renewed peace efforts as fighting has also intensified in Yemen’s gas-rich Marib region. On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department imposed new sanctions on two Houthi military leaders.
Earlier, the UAE has reaffirmed that a concerted Arab action is needed to confront the challenges besetting the region.
This was stated by the Khalifa Shaheen Almarar, Minister of State, in his address before the Arab League’s (AL) ministerial meetings where he led the UAE delegation to the AL Council’s 155th session which convened in Cairo.
The minister said that the current period requires pan-arab solidarity to confront the dread coronavirus outbreak and develop a sustainable mechanism aimed at accelerating the vaccine rollout in order to survive the health crisis. He voiced the UAE’S position on a number of issues, including the Palestinian cause, the situation in Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Syria, as well as the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and foreign interferences in the internal affairs of Arab nations.
On the Palestinian cause, Almarar reiterated the UAE’S principled position supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the June 4 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital in line with relevant international resolutions on the two-state solution. The minister emphasised that the UAE stands with the Arab consensus against the illegal practices hampering the two-state solution, calling for breaking the stalemate in the political process and paving the way to resume negotiations in this respect.
He articulated the UAE’S condemnation of the Houthi militia’s systematic attempts to target civilians and civil objects in Saudi Arabia, re-affirming the UAE’S full solidarity with the Kingdom and its stance against all threats to its security, stability, and the safety of its citizens and residents.
On this score, he said that the UAE newly urges Iran to positively respond to its repeated call for direct and peaceful negotiations to “settle the issue of our occupied islands of Abu Mousa, Lesser Tunb and Greater Tunb, or resorting to the International Court of Justice.”