Yemen’s internationally recognised government has taken control of a city in Marib governorate, the Saudi ambassador to the country said on Tuesday.
The Houthis have lost Harib district, south of Marib, the strategically vital northern city they have been fighting to hold for months.
“Harib in Marib is in the hands of the Yemeni government,” Saudi ambassador to the country Mohammed Al Jaber said on Twitter.
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition at the request of the Yemen government after it was forced from the capital city, Sanaa, by the rebels in 2014.
On Tuesday, the coalition launched a new military operation against what it called “legitimate” targets in Sanaa in response to the Houthi threats to civilian lives.
Government forces also said they had regained strategic sites between Marib and the governorate of Shabwa.
Internet services have largely been restored in Yemen after a four-day cut, residents said.
The coalition has stepped up strikes against the rebels in response to increasing drone and missile attacks on neighbouring countries.
The Houthis have repeatedly struck Saudi Arabia and have escalated attacks recently.
They launched ballistic missile attacks on the kingdom and in the UAE on Monday morning.
The two missiles aimed at the Emirates and one at Saudi Arabia were intercepted.
The Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union has condemned the attacks, as have countries including the US, France, Egypt, Hungary, Argentina, Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Last week, a Houthi drone attack killed three civilians in the UAE, a member of the coalition that supports Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
On Friday, the UN Security Council condemned the attacks on Abu Dhabi as “heinous terrorist crimes”.
The Iran-backed rebels continue to hold the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and large areas of the north after nearly seven years of civil war.
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Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
Race card
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
6pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m
6.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
7pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Company profile
Company: Rent Your Wardrobe
Date started: May 2021
Founder: Mamta Arora
Based: Dubai
Sector: Clothes rental subscription
Stage: Bootstrapped, self-funded
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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