UAE: Hodeida liberation will create a new reality
Hadi in Abu Dhabi for talks as coalition prepares for assault on Red Sea port city
Asenior UAE official said yesterday that the Iranbacked Al Houthi militia must evacuate Yemen’s main port of Hodeida as troops backed by the Saudi-led coalition geared for an assault on the city.
“The international community must pressure the Houthis to evacuate Hodeidah & leave the port intact,” Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter. “The current & illegal Houthi occupation of Hodeidah is prolonging the Yemeni war. The liberation of the city & port will create a new reality & bring the Houthis to the negotiations,” he added.
Yemen’s exiled president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi arrived in the UAE for talks yesterday. Hadi’s trip came after he met UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday in Saudi Arabia. “The meetings will address the brotherly relations between Yemen and the UAE and the joint efforts ... to liberate remaining Yemeni territory from the Al Houthi militia,” Yemen’s Saba news agency said.
Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, met Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi in Saudi Arabia on Monday to take stock of the latest developments in Yemen, ongoing efforts to restore stability, and the delivery of humanitarian and relief assistance to the Yemeni people.
Shaikh Abdullah reiterated the UAE’s unequivocal position towards Yemen and its people under the Saudi-led Arab coalition, and its support for the legitimate government in order to restore stability and security to Yemen and safeguard its sovereignty and unity.
Shaikh Abdullah also emphasised the UAE’s support for UN efforts to restore stability and ensure delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Hadi was due to hold talks in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Yemen’s state-run news agency, Saba, reported that Hadi was visiting the UAE on the advice of Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
The Saudi-led Arab coalition geared up yesterday for an assault on Yemen’s main port, preparing to launch by far the biggest battle of a three-yearold war between an alliance of Arab states and the Iranbacked Al Houthi militia that controls Yemen’s capital.
It would be the first time since they joined the war on behalf of Yemen’s exiled government that the foreign armies have attempted to capture such a well-defended major city.
Local military sources said hundreds of Yemeni fighters as well as tanks and military supplies from the UAE arrived on Monday to reinforce troops, including Emiratis and Sudanese, in Durihami, a rural area 10km south of Hodeida.
The sources said Yemeni forces allied to the Saudi-led coalition had advanced and were “at the doors” of Hodeida airport.
Yemeni officials said the UN had pulled its international staff out of Hodeida on the Red Sea amid a widely expected assault by government forces to seize the strategic port city.
The officials said yesterday the UN’s operations centre there is still being manned by local staff.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief reporters.