DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – Yemen’s exiled president was due to visit the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday to patch up relations ahead of an anticipated assault on the rebel-held port of Hodeida.
President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s trip to Abu Dhabi comes amid months of tensions between his forces and fighters backed by the UAE, which have clashed on a number of occasions. Both are part of the Saudi-led coalition that has been at war with Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015.
The two sides were also at odds over the recent deployment of UAE forces to the Yemen’s Arabian Sea island of Socotra, a dispute mediated by Saudi officials.
Over 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war. The Saudi-led coalition has been criticized for its airstrikes killing civilians. Meanwhile, the U.N. and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons from assault rifles up to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia, including at the capital, Riyadh.
Yemen’s government-controlled SABA news agency announced Hadi’s trip, saying it came after Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited him at his home in Riyadh, where he lives in self-imposed exile.