\n The United Arab Emirates said Monday it was redeploying and reducing troops across war-torn Yemen and moving from a \"military-first\" strategy to a \"peace-first\" plan.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UAE is a key partner in a Saudi-led military coalition which intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Iran-aligned Huthi rebels.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We do have troop levels that are down for reasons that are strategic in (the Red Sea city of) Hodeida and reasons that are tactical\" in other parts of the country, a senior UAE official, who requested anonymity, told reporters.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It is very much to do with moving from what I would call a military-first strategy to a peace-first strategy, and this is I think what we are doing.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The official however reiterated the UAE's commitment to the Yemeni government and the Saudi-led coalition, saying discussions on redeployment have been ongoing for more than a year.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"This is not really a last-minute decision. This is part of the process and naturally a process within the coalition that's been discussed extensively with our partners, the Saudis,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to a Yemeni military government official, UAE troops fighting the Huthis have \"totally vacated\" the military base in Khokha, about 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Hodeida.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UAE withdrew part of its heavy artillery from Khokha but was -- along with the Saudi-led coalition and the government -- still overseeing the military situation in Yemen's western coast, he said on Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Subtle differences' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Middle East expert James Dorsey has said a redeployment reflects \"long-standing subtle differences\" in the Saudi and UAE approaches towards Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n The pullback \"highlights the UAE's long-standing concern for its international standing amid mounting criticism of the civilian toll of the war\", he has said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Tens of thousands of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in March 2015, relief agencies say.\n<\/p>\n
\n The fighting has triggered what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of people displaced and in need of aid.\n<\/p>\n
\n In March 2018, rights group Amnesty International accused Western countries of supplying arms to Riyadh and its allies, who could stand guilty of war crimes in Yemen.\n<\/p>\n
\n And in August last year a UN expert mission concluded that all warring parties had potentially committed \"war crimes\".\n<\/p>\n
\n According to Dorsey with the pullback \"the UAE may allow differences with Saudi Arabia to become more visible but will not put its alliance with the kingdom at risk\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Furthermore, Emirati-trained local troops will \"continue to do its (UAE) bidding\" on the ground, he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Yemeni official told AFP the UAE has trained tens of thousands of Yemenis to fight against jihadists from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic State group in southern provinces -- mainly Aden, Mukalla and Shabwa.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UAE announcement comes amid a standoff between the United States and Iran, which spikes in June when Iran shot down a US drone over strategic Gulf waters following a series of tanker attacks that Washington blamed on Iran, which denied involvement.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UAE official said the Emirates' redeployment decision was not linked to the increase of regional tensions but it was not \"blind to the overall geostrategic picture\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The official stressed the redeployment was in line with the agreement reached in Sweden in December between Yemen's warring parties.\n<\/p>\n
\n US-ally Saudi Arabia has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying sophisticated weapons to Huthi rebels, a charge Tehran denies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Arab Emirates said Monday it was redeploying and reducing troops across war-torn Yemen and moving from a \"military-first\" strategy to a \"peace-first\" plan. The UAE is a key partner in a Saudi-led military coalition which intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally recognised government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi against Iran-aligned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-41886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n