News Desk
DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates has announced the voluntary end of its counterterrorism mission in Yemen, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday. The defence ministry said the decision followed a comprehensive assessment of recent developments and potential risks to the safety and effectiveness of its operations.
In a statement shared in Arabic on X, the ministry added that the UAE’s remaining presence in Yemen had been limited to specialized personnel working in coordination with international partners. The announcement comes after a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla targeted what Riyadh described as foreign military support for UAE-backed southern separatists.
Saudi Arabia also called for the immediate withdrawal of UAE forces from Yemen within 24 hours. The UAE had been part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement in Yemen since 2015. Although it began drawing down its troops in 2019, it remained committed to supporting the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
In recent months, the Southern Transitional Council (STC) advanced a sudden offensive against Saudi-backed government forces in the south, claiming broad control and ending years of stalemate. Rashad al-Alimi, head of Yemen’s presidential council, subsequently cancelled a defence pact with the UAE and accused it of backing the STC’s rebellion against state authority.
“It has been definitively confirmed that the UAE pressured and directed the STC to undermine and rebel against the authority of the state through military escalation,” he said. The UAE foreign ministry expressed disappointment at Saudi Arabia’s statement and said it was surprised by the airstrike.
