UAE calls for backing Yemeni 'uprising' against Houthis

Dubai, Dec 4  : A senior official of the the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday called for backing the "national uprising" in Yemen against the Houthi rebels.

UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash, tweeted that the uprising against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels "needs support" in order "to protect the Arabian Peninsula from Iran", Xinhua news agency reported.

In two tweets posted on his twitter account, Gargash said whatever the outcome of the "blessed uprising" in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, it shows the Houthi control is nothing more than being temporary.

The senior diplomat, who has with 587,000 followers on the microblogging platform, also said that the situation in Sanaa still remained "vague".

He was referring to the recent clashes between the Houthi rebels and the supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, both of whom used to be allies in fighting a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to support the internationally-recognised government led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi since March 2015.

Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels on Sunday said they fired a long-range winged cruise missile towards the Barraka nuclear reactor area in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE.

"The missile hit the target accurately in Abu Dhabi," Xinhua news agency quoted a statement quoted by Saba news that cited a Houthi military official as saying.

This is the third long-range ballistic missile attack on neighbouring Gulf states within a period of a month.