Gargash: UAE-Saudi partnership a 'strategic necessity' in Yemen

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said the relationship was key to solving the conflict in Yemen

The Arab Coalition to support Yemen is a “strategic necessity in light of the surrounding challenges”, Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said on Sunday.

"As a result of our strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, it is the one deciding whether to continue our role in supporting stability in Yemen within the Arab Coalition or not," Dr Gargash tweeted.

"Our engagement with Riyadh is ontological and more comprehensive, especially in the surrounding difficult circumstances and in light of our firm conviction of Riyadh's pivotal and leading role."

The UAE has backed the UN efforts to calm the situation in southern Yemen after clashes between government forces and the secessionist Southern Transitional Council.

“We must not forget the important part my country has played in the liberation of Aden and most of the country occupied by the Houthi rebellion," Saud Al Shamsi, the UAE's deputy permanent representative and charge d'affaires to the UN, told the Security Council last week.

"The UAE has prevented the terrorist parties from taking advantage of the security vacuum during this critical and difficult phase of Yemen's life, and the UAE has managed to play a great part in reconstructing the liberated areas.”

The UAE and Saudi leaders attended a meeting in early August in Makkah to discuss the situation.

Saudi King Salman and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, urged all parties to "prioritise dialogue and reason in the interest of Yemen and its people".

Meanwhile, the Coalition shot down a drone launched by Yemen's Houthi rebels on Sunday morning towards Khamis Mushait in south-west Saudi Arabia.

"The coalition forces intercepted and downed a drone launched from the city of Sanaa in the direction of Khamis Mushait's residential neighbourhoods," coalition spokesman Col Turki Al Malki told the official Saudi Press Agency.

The Houthis' Al Masirah TV channel reported that the rebels had launched at the control towers of Khamis Mushait airbase and Abha civilian airport, also in the south-west of the kingdom.

The Iran-backed rebels, who seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2014, have increased drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent months.

While most of the attacks were intercepted, some have caused deaths and injuries, including two strikes on Abha airport in June and July.

The escalation undermines UN attempts to put into effect a ceasefire in the port city of Hodeidah, the main entry point for desperately needed food and aid for millions of Yemenis affected by the war.

The truce brokered in Sweden last December is seen as a first step towards a political resolution to the conflict, in which the Saudi-led coalition is supporting the internationally recognised government.

The escalation in violence threatens the UN-sponsored deal for a ceasefire and troop withdrawal from Hodeidah.