UAE, coalition not leaving Yemen despite redeployment of forces – minister

The United Arab Emirates, part of an Arab military coalition, is not leaving Yemen despite an ongoing drawdown and redeployment of Emirati forces, AFP reports.

“The UAE and the rest of the coalition are not leaving Yemen,” the minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said in an opinion piece published on Monday in the Washington Post. “While we will operate differently, our military presence will remain.”

The UAE announced earlier this month it was drawing down and redeploying troops in Yemen. The UAE is a key partner in the Saudi-led military coalition which intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally-recognized government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against the Houthi rebels.

Gargash said the Houthis should see the UAE move as a “confidence-building measure to create new momentum to end the conflict.”