Western countries’s practices to seize the vital Yemeni port

YemenExtra

Y.A

The French newspaper “Le Figaro” revealed the presence of French troops participating in the battle of the West Coast of Yemen along with the UAE forces.

The French newspaper quoted two military sources as saying: “There are Special French Forces on Yemen supporting the UAE forces.”

France, along with the United States and Britain, backs Riyadh in the Yemen conflict and provides weapons to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The newspaper gave no further details of the activities of the Special Forces, and no response has been received from the French Ministry of Defense so far, but its usual policy is not to comment on the special forces operations.

The French Defense Ministry said on Friday that France is considering the possibility of implementing the process of clearing mines in order to reach Hodeydah port once the coalition ends its military operations.

The Defense Ministry added that France at this stage had no military operations in Hodeidah region and was not part of the Saudi offensive.

Abdulmalik al-Houthi, the leader of the Houthi(Ansarallah)  movement, which is the main force that faces the coallition, said on a TV speech ,” The decision of invading the Yemeni ,western coast, has been taken and adopted by the United States of America,noting that the Saudis are trying to abolish Yemen’s freedom,” stressing that it was the people of Yemen’s right to defend their country.

Ansarullah Spokesman Mohammad Abdulsalam, however, stressed that British and French warships are on standby on Yemen’s Western coast to launch missiles and aerial attacks.

Abdulsalam added that the Hodeidah assault is an American-British operation as the aggressor states – Saudi Arabia and the UAE – are not capable of launching such a campaign.

Hodeidah is a strategic port city which should be supporting more than 20 million Yemenis. It should be the source of at least 70 percent of all imports to Yemen,” Suze van Meegen, a protection and advocacy adviser with the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP. The US-Saudi-led coalition has been eager to retake from Yemeni joint forces control, according to Yemeni officials.. But the former UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheik, warned against attacking the port city over potential catastrophic consequences to Yemen last year. Martin Griffiths, the new special envoy to Yemen, echoed the same concern over attacking Hudaydah at the UN Security Council this week.