UAE's Gargash says Yemen's Aden airport blast is an attack on Riyadh agreement

The attack on Yemen's Aden airport is an attack on the Riyadh Agreement, the United Arab Emirates’ Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Wednesday.

"The Aden airport attack targets the Riyadh Agreement and the prospects of stability and peace it holds for Yemen. The incitement, sabotage, violence and terrorism will fail in the face of the peace project led by Saudi Arabia for the good of Yemen and the region," Gargash said on Twitter.

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At least 26 people were killed and dozens wounded in an attack on Aden airport on Wednesday moments after a plane landed carrying a newly formed Saudi-backed cabinet for government-held parts of Yemen.

Hours after the attack, a second explosion was heard around Aden's Maasheq presidential palace where the cabinet members including Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik, as well as the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, had been taken to safely, residents and local media said.

In the airport attack, loud blasts and gunfire were heard shortly after the plane arrived from Riyadh, witnesses said. A local security source said three mortar shells had landed on the airport's hall.

Yemen's internationally recognised government and southern separatists formed a new power-sharing cabinet on December 18, and arrived in the southern city of Aden on Wednesday, days after being sworn in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia had introduced the Riyadh Agreement in November 2019 to try to end the dispute in the country’s south that emerged in 2017.

- With Agencies

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