Dubai | The United States will send a warship and fighter jets to help the United Arab Emirates against the Houthis, after several attacks by these Yemeni rebels against the Gulf country, Washington announced in a statement on Wednesday.
The deployment, to ‘help the UAE deal with the current threat’, follows a phone call between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the country’s de facto ruler. , Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, said the US Embassy in the Emirates.
The Emirates, part of a Saudi-led military coalition operating in Yemen since 2015, was the target of three missile and drone attacks in January, one of which killed three migrant workers.
The second attack, on January 24, targeted the Al-Dhafra air base where US forces are stationed, which intercepted missiles launched by the Houthis.
The USS Cole guided-missile destroyer will partner with the Emirati Navy and make a stopover in Abu Dhabi, capital of the Emirates, according to the statement, which said Washington will also deploy fifth-generation fighter jets.
In addition, the United States will continue to provide the Emirates with intelligence for the prevention of attacks, it is added.
The multiplication of Houthi attacks against the Emirates, a wealthy Gulf country that holds to its reputation as an oasis of peace in the Middle East, opens a new page in the war in Yemen that began in 2014.
In more than seven years of war in Yemen, all the actors in the conflict have been accused of “war crimes” by UN experts. Implicated for multiple “blunders”, the coalition led by Ryad has recognized “errors” but accuses the Houthi rebels of using Yemeni civilians as human shields.
According to the UN, the conflict in Yemen has claimed 377,000 lives and pushed the country’s 30 million people to the brink of starvation.