A drone attack launched by Yemen’s Houthis rebel group against Abu Dhabi sparked a fire near the airport in the capital of the United Arab Emirates and the explosion of three tanker trucks, which left three dead, on Monday morning. (17).
Analysts believe the attack could take the war in Yemen, a conflict between the rebel group and the Saudi-led coalition, to a new level, which would hamper efforts to contain regional tensions at a time when the US and Iran work to rescue a nuclear deal — the Houthis are allies of Tehran.
The United Arab Emirates, a member of the military coalition, has armed and trained local Yemeni forces that have joined the fight against the Houthis in the energy-producing Shabwa and Marib regions of Yemen.
“The Houthis’ criminal attack on civilian buildings in Abu Dhabi and the fact that the Houthis militias are targeting regional security will not affect the security and peace we live in,” Emirati politician Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter.
The Houthi movement has already launched a series of missiles and drones across the Saudi Arabian border, but has claimed few attacks in the UAE, and most of them have been denied by the Emirati authorities.
“With time running out of negotiations [nucleares do Irã], the risk of a deterioration in the region’s sense of security is increasing,” says Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal analyst for Middle East and North Africa at risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft.
The explosion of tanker trucks this morning in the industrial area of ​​Musaffah, near the storage facilities of the oil company Adnoc (National Oil Company of Abu Dhabi), left three dead and six injured. Among the victims were two Indians and a Pakistani.
Police closed the road leading to the area, which was covered in black smoke. “Initial investigations found parts of a small plane that could have been a drone at both locations, which could have caused both the explosion and the fire,” Abu Dhabi Police said.
An Etihad Airways spokesperson said some flights were canceled at the airport due to “precautionary measures”, but operations were quickly resumed.
The Houthis’ military spokesman said the group had launched a military operation “in depth in the United Arab Emirates”. The group’s chief negotiator, Mohammed Abdulsalam, who according to local media is on a trip to Tehran, said the United Arab Emirates is playing games of “manipulation in Yemen”.
For UAE political analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, there could be retaliation, although it is too early to say what the country will do. “The United Arab Emirates will not take this too lightly,” he said.
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have scrambled to engage directly with Iran in recent months to avoid any wider conflict that could undermine the region’s economic ambitions. The Yemen war is seen as a proxy battle between Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran.
The attack on Monday coincides with a visit by South Korean President Moon Jae-in to the United Arab Emirates. According to the Korean government, a bilateral meeting between Moon and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi was canceled due to an “unforeseen and urgent state matter”.
Given the frequency of the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, it was “not technically surprising” that the group could hit UAE targets, says Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain condemned what they described as a “cowardly and terrorist” attack.
There was no immediate comment from the Iranian authorities, but the Iranian news agency Tasnim called the attack an “important operation”. Iran, which has uneasy relations with the Emirates, is the only country that openly supports the rebels, but denies accusations by Saudi Arabia and the United States of supplying weapons to the group.
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