In a televised speech, the Houthi leader Abdelmalek Al-Houthi threatened the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, claiming that the militia group has ballistic missiles which could reach the Gulf States. “We could target Saudi oil tankers and we could do anything,” he boasted.
However, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia seem to have shrugged off the Houthi threat, although it certainly should not be ignored. The militia has displayed great resilience against the coalition which officially entered the Yemen conflict in support of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi’s government. The conflict has reached stalemate, without much change to territorial gains on either side. The coalition has failed to push back the Houthis’ military advances, and the capital Sana’a is yet to be retaken by Hadi’s forces fighting alongside those of the coalition.
