Missile fired by Houthis destroyed as Israel’s president visits, UAE says

The United Arab Emirates said on Monday a ballistic missile fired over its territory by Yemen's Houthi rebels had been intercepted and destroyed, as Yitzak Herzog was paying the first-ever visit by an Israeli president.

The Emirati defence ministry said "there were no casualties resulting from the attack and fragments of the ballistic missile fell outside populated areas". The ministry claimed Emirati fighter jets destroyed missile launch pads in Yemen.

The attack appears to have been timed to coincide with Mr Herzog's presence as the pro-Palestinian Houthis condemn Arab normalisation with Israel.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saria said the rebels also launched armed drones at Dubai, the east-west flight hub and regional business base. There was no Emirati confirmation of this claim. He said the "Emirates will remain an unsafe country" as long as it is involved in the Yemen war.

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Last week, two missiles were intercepted over the Emirates and, on January 17th, drones struck oil tanker lorries and an airport building in Abu Dhabi, killing two Indians and a Pakistani. The Saudis responded by bombing a migrant detention centre in Houthi-held north Yemen, killing 91.

Oil-rich province

The Houthis argue they are retaliating for UAE-backed Yemeni militia involvement in the Houthi offensive in oil-rich Marib province, the last in the north remaining under Saudi-sponsored Yemeni government control.

While the Houthis have repeatedly mounted missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia since the kingdom and the Emirates intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015, the Emirates, which withdrew its troops in 2019, was not targeted until this month.

Washington promptly condemned the missile attack, which Emirati-based US troops helped to foil. The Biden administration initially pledged to end the war but has promoted the sale of $650 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia and $23 billion to the Emirates.

Humanitarian crisis

In an opinion article published on Sunday in the Washington Post, Yemeni journalist Shuaib Almosawa and director of Democracy for the Arab World Now Sarah Leah Whitson argued that administration policies have "inflamed the fighting, which has expanded beyond Yemen's borders, from deep inside Saudi Arabia to the [Emirates], increasing the instability of the entire region".

Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with 377,000 killed in fighting and by disease and hunger. According to the UN, two-thirds of the 30 million Yemenis live in poverty; four million have been displaced by warfare; and schools, hospitals and infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed.

Unchecked waves of Covid-19 have intensified suffering. Humanitarian aid funding for 2022 is zero while last year only $2 billion was raised out of a required $3.9 billion, forcing UN agencies to cut food baskets and services.

Saudi refusal to meet the Houthi demand to lift the blockade of the north has crippled Yemen’s economy, prevented essential supplies from reaching the populace and stalled UN-mediated peace talks.