The leader of Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement has slammed Saudi Arabia for allowing Israeli planes to fly through its airspace on their way to or from the United Arab Emirates, claiming that the controversial move comes as the Riyadh regime maintains an all-out blockade on the war-torn country.
“While Saudi Arabia maintains a blockade on Yemen’s airspace, the Riyadh regime opened the skies of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for the Israeli prime minister (Naftali Bennett) to fly to the UAE,” Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said at a meeting with several visiting Yemeni tribal delegations in the capital Sana’a on Sunday evening.
On December 13, the Israeli prime minister met with the UAE’s de facto ruler. More than a year after the two sides agreed to establish diplomatic relations, he became the first Israeli leader to visit the Persian Gulf state.
Following his arrival in the Emirati capital the night before, Bennett met with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) at his private palace.
In 2020, the UAE was the first of four Arab countries to agree to normalise relations with Israel as part of US-brokered agreements.
The agreements are seen as a stab in the back by Palestinians who want an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip with East al-Quds as its capital.
In other parts of his speech, Houthi hailed Yemeni tribes meetings, saying that such gatherings will serve to solidify links among all strata of society in the face of the Saudi onslaught.
He emphasised the importance of promoting unity and understanding among Yemenis, as well as avoiding and dismissing those who pursue divisive agendas.
‘Syria’s victory over foreign conspiracies is the fate of Yemen.’
Abdullah Ali Sabri, Yemen’s ambassador to Damascus, claimed those launching a destructive military campaign against his country are the same forces that backed Takfiri terrorist groups inside Syria.
He claimed that the two Arab countries under turmoil had no choice except to combat terrorism and triumph against international intrigues.
Sabri went on to claim that the sufferings of the Yemeni and Syrian peoples are the result of foreign interference and attempts to divide them in order to push US-Israeli Middle East scenarios.
The Yemeni ambassador noted that the two Arab states are vigorously rejecting the plans, stressing that the Saudi war on Yemen is aimed to dominate the country’s strategic location, loot its natural resources, weaken its sovereignty and independence, and prevent national unity there.
Yemen has always stood up against colonisers, according to Sabri, and will eventually become the aggressors’ tomb.
Saudi Arabia initiated the war on Yemen in March 2015, backed by the US and regional allies, with the goal of restoring former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi’s administration and defeating the Ansarullah movement.
Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis have died as a result of the conflict, and millions more have been displaced. It has also obliterated Yemen’s infrastructure and spread starvation and deadly illnesses, exacerbating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Despite Saudi Arabia’s massively armed bombing of Yemen, the Yemeni armed forces and Popular Committees have progressively gained in strength against the Saudi invaders, leaving Riyadh and its supporters stranded in the country.
