Houthis threaten Saudi, UAE civilian targets

DUBAI: Houthi rebels on Thursday threatened to attack civilian target in Saudi Arabia in the UAE in response to Saudi Arabia call to put Al-Hdeidah port under the UN administration.

The threat was made by the Houthi leader Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi who was delivering a televised speech, adding that his group’s ballistic missiles were capable of reaching the UAE’s capital of Abu Dhabi and anywhere inside Saudi Arabia.

It was unclear whether the Houthi group has the capability to carry out its threats.

Abdel Malek also said that they had successfully test fired a missile toward Abu Dhabi earlier this month and said the UAE was no longer safe country.

He gave no further details and there has been no indication by the UAE of any missiles landing on their territory.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, is fighting to drive the Houthis out of cities they seized in 2014 and 2015 in a rapid rise to national power.

“Today the port of Hodeidah is being threatened and we cannot turn a blind eye to that,” AbdelMalek said.

“If the Saudi regime and with a green light from the US attack Hodeidah then we have to take steps that we haven’t taken before.”

The UN had proposed that the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, where 80 percent of food imports arrive, should be handed to a neutral party, to smooth the flow of humanitarian relief and prevent the port being engulfed by Yemen’s two-year-old war.

The government of President Hadi accuses the Houthis of using the port to smuggle in weapons and of collecting custom duties on goods, which they use to finance the war. The Houthis deny this.