Saudi Arabia has said its national security is a “red line” it would defend, hours after a coalition it leads struck vehicles and cargo in Yemen that it said had been supplied by a foreign military to separatists in that country’s south.
The coalition’s “limited military operation” at Mukalla port came days after it warned the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) group against taking military action in Hadramout province.
Yemen’s Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has named the United Arab Emirates as the country that supplied the assistance to the STC that was targeted in the coalition’s strike.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Tuesday that it hoped the UAE would take the necessary steps to preserve bilateral relations between Gulf Arab nations.
The UAE later rejected the allegations, saying it was disappointed by the Saudi statement and surprised by the strike.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in statement that it “categorically rejects any attempt to implicate it in the tensions between Yemeni parties and condemns the allegations of pressuring or directing any Yemeni party to carry out military operations that threaten the security of the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or target its borders.”
Al Jazeera’s Michael Appel reports.
He says the allegations against the UAE are ill founded and untrue.
Abdulaziz Al Gashian is Lecturer of International Relations at Naif Arab University for Security Studies. He says the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UAE could be nearing a point of no return.
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