Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi left his refuge in Aden under Saudi protection yesterday and arrived in Saudi Arabia as Houthi rebels battled with forces still loyal to him on the outskirts of the southern port city.
Throughout the day, warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies struck at Houthi forces, who have taken over much of the country in their campaign to oust Hadi.
The Saudi-led military intervention marked a major escalation of the Yemen crisis, in which Iran supports the Shi’ite Muslim Houthis, and Sunni Muslim monarchies in the Gulf back Hadi and his fellow Sunni loyalists in Yemen’s south.
Iran denounced the surprise assault on the Houthis and demanded an immediate halt to Saudi-led military operations.
Tehran also made clear Saudi Arabia’s deployment of a Sunni coalition against its Shi’ite enemies would complicate efforts to end a conflict that will only inflame the sectarian hatreds already fuelling wars around the Middle East.
But Hadi’s departure from Aden, where he had holed up since fleeing the Houthi-controlled capital Sanaa in February, could also be a turning point.
Saudi state TV channel Al Ekhbariya said Hadi had arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh yesterday. Saudi-owned al Arabiya TV said he would go onto the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to attend an Arab summit tomorrow.
Mohammed Marem, the director of Hadi’s office, confirmed he would attend the Sharm meeting in person, dropping his original plan to address other Arab leaders via a closed-circuit TV link. But it was not certain if Hadi would be able to return to Aden.
On the city’s northern outskirts, Houthis and allied troops fought gun battles with militiamen loyal to Hadi. Thirteen pro-Houthi fighters and three militiamen were killed.
Pro-Hadi fighters retook Aden airport, a day after it was captured by Houthi forces advancing on the city. The facility remained closed.
The Saudi move was a major gamble by the world’s top oil exporter to check Iranian influence in its backyard without direct military backing from Washington.
“We will do whatever it takes in order to protect the legitimate government of Yemen from falling,” Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubeir, told a news conference in Washington.