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Saudi refuses UAE request to send mercenaries to Yemen

December 2, 2015 at 2:16 pm

Saudi Arabia refused a UAE offer to send Colombian mercenaries to Yemen, Arabi21 reported an informed Saudi official as saying yesterday.

The official said that the UAE offer came in an effort to avoid a sole Sudanese military presence in Aden, but Saudi “decisively” refused the proposal and agreed to reinforce the Saudi-Sudanese existence in the strategic Yemeni city.

According to the official, Saudi is currently depending on the Sudanese forces more than the UAE forces in Yemen.

The New York Times revealed last week that the UAE had secretly sent hundreds of Colombian mercenaries to Yemen. The American newspaper added: “It is the first combat deployment for a foreign army that the Emirates has quietly built in the desert over the past five years.”

Yemeni military source have said that Sudanese forces have already arrived in Yemen and are taking part in the battles against the Houthis.

Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported that the UAE forces, which were taking part in the battle to liberate Ta’ez, had withdrawn and headed to Aden, the temporary headquarters of the Yemeni president.

The newspaper said that the main reason behind the withdrawal of the UAE from Ta’ez was the hostility between Abu Dhabi and the Muslim Brotherhood, whose stronghold lies in Ta’ez.