BICOM

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced it will reduce its military force in Yemen as part of a “strategic” and “tactical” redeployment, according to a UAE official.

UAE military personnel have played a vital part in the Saudi-led military campaign to oust the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015. A senior Emirati official said that UAE troop levels were: “Down for reasons that are strategic in [the Red Sea city] Hodeidah and reasons that are tactical. It is very much to do with moving from what I would call a military-first strategy to a peace first strategy.” The official also said that the movement of other soldiers in Yemen are “tactical and based on our needs”.

The Emirati official said they are not worried about a vacuum in Yemen, because: “We have trained a total of 90,000 Yemeni forces. This is one of our major successes in Yemen”.  He said this process was not “a last-minute decision”, calling it “part of the process within the coalition that’s been discussed extensively with our partners, the Saudis”.

According to the official, the reduction in military forces would impact the port city of Hodeidah, where the withdrawal of Houthi forces has been negotiated, and the Eritrean port city of Assab, a centre for UAE operations against Houthis in Yemen. The official said: “It makes a lot of sense for us to redeploy away from Hodeidah” following the political agreement reached in Stockholm last December.

The spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Colonel Turki al-Malki, said: “The United Arab Emirates … and the coalition countries continue to achieve their operational and strategic goals and reach the final status of restoring the legitimate Yemeni government”. The Emirati official reiterated the UAE’s commitment to the coalition’s goals in Yemen and the internationally-recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The British Government has warned that more than 20 million people are on the brink of starvation due to the war and the UN says at least 6,800 civilians have been killed and 10,700 injured in the fighting since 2015.