Houthi leader: UAE oil, cities among in our targets

A senior military commander of Yemen’s rebel Houthi group has threatened UAE oil companies and their “glass cities” will be among the group’s future targets.

The message comes following strikes on two Saudi oil facilities over the weekend, which the group said was a message to the UAE, Al-Mayadeen TV reported.

The Emirates must officially declare its withdrawal from the Saudi-led “battle to destroy Yemen” and stop committing “massacres” against its people, he unnamed official warned.

The Houthi leader also said that the formal announcements of withdrawal from some areas will not prevent his group from targeting UAE oil companies.

READ: Houthis threaten to renew attacks on Aramco in Saudi Arabia

He noted that he sees targeting Saudi or UAE oil fields as a legitimate in an effort to stop the “aggression and massacres” that have been carried out by the Saudi-led coalition forces against the Yemeni people since 2015.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are part of an Arab coalition fighting in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis and forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The coalition entered the war in 2015 to reinstate the UN-backed President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. However the UAE has been found to be backing the Southern Transitional Council in an effort to split Yemen in to two countries, North and South, contrary to the objectives of the coalition.