SANA’A (Dispatches) – The United Arab Emirates has been trying to hinder the negotiations between Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement and Saudi Arabia aimed at bringing an end to the Riyadh-led coalition’s war on the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Citing informed sources in the Sana’a government, the Lebanese al-Akhbar daily reported that Abu Dhabi wants to create an impediment to the peace talks because a cessation of hostilities would end its role in southern Yemen.
“The UAE is desperate to obstruct the peace process through its repeated attempts … to participate in the negotiations taking place between Sana’a and Riyadh, which achieved great progress last week,” the report said.
It was pointing to the Saudi-Yemen peace talks that excluded the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a UAE-backed militant group that wants the south to separate from the rest of Yemen.
Ansarullah will only negotiate with “the leader of the coalition,” the report added, in reference to Saudi Arabia and not the UAE.
“Sana’a is expecting Abu Dhabi to push the militia parties loyal to it to obstruct any peace agreement, because peace would strip it of any role in southern Yemen, and would not guarantee its survival in the Yemeni ports, airports, and islands, especially Socotra Island,” it said.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE launched the war on Yemen to restore power to the impoverished country’s Western- and Riyadh-allied government.
Since 2019, the pair have pursued contrasting policies, with the UAE withdrawing troops, seeking footholds in the south and acting as the STC’s patron.
The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement says the Sana’a-based National Salvation Government will employ all available legal means to end the Saudi-led aggression and occupation of the Arab country in case the ongoing talks in Riyadh fail to bear any fruit.
“We will continue our efforts to put an end to the aggression, siege and occupation [of Yemen] through all legitimate means. If the negotiations do not succeed, our people reserve the right to employ all available resources to end the various forms of onslaught against Yemen,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech broadcast live late on Tuesday.
He stated that Muslims are facing the grave danger of getting under the complete sway of the enemies of Islam. It is, therefore, necessary for Muslims to attach firmly to the Holy Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Houthi added, “The Zionist lobby, spearheaded by the United States and the Israeli regime, together with certain European countries and their vassal states, are trying to influence Muslims.”
He noted that the enemies are manipulating the teachings and educational materials of Arab and Muslim countries, pointing to Saudi Arabia as one of the states that have removed verses of the Holy Qur’an from school textbooks in order to delight Zionists.