UAE, Kuwait move embassies to Yemen’s Aden

The UAE and Kuwait said on Friday that their embassies in Yemen have resumed their operations in the southern city of Aden, a day after Saudi Arabia took a similar step.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had fled a house arrest imposed on him by Shiite Houthi rebels in Sanaa and moved to Aden.

The relocation of Gulf embassies to Aden, Yemen’s economic hub, underlines the Gulf states’ support for Hadi.

The UAE’s decision “comes to consolidate the constitutional legitimacy in the sisterly state of Yemen represented in President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, his government, the GCC Initiative and agreed political process,” the UAE’s state news agency WAM reported.

The UAE expressed its “absolute rejection to the Houthi coup d’etat and subsequent arbitrary measures on the legitimacy,” WAM reported, quoting Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash.

Gargash added that the security and stability of Yemen “is through restoration of the legitimacy and political process that resulted from the GCC Initiative to preserve the national unity and stability of Yemen.”

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s state news agency quoted a foreign ministry source as saying that the decision to move the country’s embassy to Aden was “part of the country’s support to legitimacy in Yemen, represented by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The Gulf countries joined Western states earlier this month in evacuating their embassies in Sanaa following a power grab by the Houthis, who now control the capital city.

But with Hadi gone, the Houthis, whose fighters now control large parts of Yemen, have been struggling to form a new government.

While under siege in Sanaa, Hadi had submitted his resignation, which he later retracted after fleeing to Aden.

Parliament never met to approve Hadi’s resignation, and on Saturday he said he was still president. He is now working to set up a rival power center in Aden with loyal army units and tribes, though many members of his government, including the prime minister, Khaled Bahah, remain under house arrest in Sanaa.