ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson on Wednesday expressed concern over the resurgence of violence in Yemen, expressing solidarity with Saudi Arabia and calling for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve ongoing tensions in the country.
The development takes place a day after the Saudi Arabia-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen said it conducted a “limited” airstrike targeting two shipments of smuggled weapons and other military hardware coming from the Emirati port of Fujairah into Mukalla in southern Yemen.
Major General Turki Al-Maliki, spokesperson of the coalition forces, said the weapons were meant to support the Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces, backed by the UAE, in Yemen’s Hadramaut and Al-Mahra “with the aim of fueling the conflict.” Shortly after the airstrikes, Rashad Al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, told Emirati authorities to withdraw their troops from Yemen within 24 hours.
Disregarding previous agreements with the Arab Coalition, the STC separatist group launched a sweeping military campaign early in December, seizing the governorates of Hadramaut along the Saudi border and the eastern governorate of Al-Mahra in Yemen’s border with Oman.
