Reuters. Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday its national security was a red line and backed a call for UAE forces to leave Yemen within 24 hours, hours after a Saudi-led coalition carried out an airstrike on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla.
The warning represented Riyadh's strongest language against Abu Dhabi yet, as the coalition struck what it described as foreign military support to UAE-backed southern separatists, and the head of Yemen's Saudi-backed presidential council set the deadline for Emirati forces to leave.
Yemen's presidential council head, Rashad al-Alimi, also cancelled a defence pact with the UAE, the Yemeni state news agency said, and accused the UAE in a televised speech of fuelling internal strife in Yemen with its support to the Southern Transitional Council (STC).
"Unfortunately, it has been definitively confirmed that the United Arab Emirates pressured and directed the STC to undermine and rebel against the authority of the state through military escalation," he added.
Saudi Arabia urged the Emiratis to comply with the demand. The UAE's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
