UAE doing its best for peace in Yemen

It’s the historic and fraternal bonds between the two countries that prompted the UAE to pursue its efforts to restore security and stability in Yemen.

As His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, pointed out, preserving Yemen’s security and stability and supporting its people are part of the established pillars of the UAE policy since the time of the late founding father, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

Yemen is undoubtedly of strategic importance with regard to Arab security.

Sheikh Mohamed has made it absolutely clear that the UAE would continue its efforts until peace prevailed across Yemen and legitimacy institutions resumed their duties in an atmosphere of security and stability.

The UAE’s humanitarian and developmental initiatives and its support and rehabilitation of the Yemeni security and police forces have won the hearts of the Yemeni people.  

A special note should be taken of the fact that the UAE has topped a list of donor countries contributing to the United Nation’s Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan, YHRP 2019.

According to data released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UNOCHA, the UAE contributed $195 million towards the YHRP since the beginning of this year and until July 2.

The UAE also provided $5.59 billion in foreign assistance to Yemen between April 2015 and June 2019.

According to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, 66 per cent of the amount went towards development ventures and 34 per cent to humanitarian relief.

Around 10,000 students in Yemen benefitted from the financial support of the UAE that restored 13 schools in five governorates in first half of 2019, as per the Emirates Red Crescent’s mid-year report.

Three schools were restored in Hodeidah, three in Taiz, two in Shabwa, two in Lahj and three in Abyan.

The restoration entailed repairing damages, equipping and furnishing classes and providing solar-powered generators, enabling 9,900 students to continue their primary and secondary education.

The UAE has actually saved Yemen’s educational system from collapse, after many schools were either shelled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia or transformed into their barracks.

Out of seven million school-aged children in Yemen, over two million were already out of school, according to Unicef statistics, which said in March that school infrastructure was badly damaged.

The Houthi militias, on their part, have been making the lives of ordinary Yemeni people miserable, even going to the extent of stealing their food. They have also been crossing all limits by continuing to launch drones to carry out terrorist acts targeting civilians and civilian installations.

The coalition forces intercepted and shot down on Monday evening two unmanned drones, launched by the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist militia from Sana’a, towards civilians and civilian targets, in Khamis Mushait city in Saudi Arabia.

The attempts of the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist militia to deliberately target civilians reflect the bankruptcy of the terrorist militia and its immoral approach, as stated by Colonel Turki Al-Malki, the official spokesman of Coalition Forces Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen.

These frequent terrorist attacks are systematic to target civilians and are definitely in a clear and explicit violation of international humanitarian law.

Sultan Al Burkani, Speaker of the Yemeni Parliament, has appropriately mentioned that the UAE has taken a noble stance that will go down in history, of supporting the Yemeni people and protecting its Arab identity and history.