Bloomberg Covers JINSA Abraham Accords Report Rollout Event

Yemen’s Houthis used cruise and ballistic missiles and drones to attack Abu Dhabi this week, the United Arab Emirates ambassador to the U.S. said, in the first official details to emerge on how the strikes were conducted.

“Several were intercepted,” Yousef Al Otaiba told an online event organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America on Wednesday. But a few weren’t “and three innocent civilians unfortunately lost their lives.”

The worst attacks to hit the Gulf Arab nation since it joined the war against the Houthis in 2015 ignited a fire at Abu Dhabi’s main airport on Monday and set fuel trucks ablaze in a nearby industrial area, killing three people and wounding six. It took place days after the Houthi fighters warned the UAE against intensifying its air campaign against them.

“We are asking our friends in the administration and in Congress to reinstate the Houthi” designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, Al Otaiba said.

The U.S. removed its terrorist designation for the Houthis a year ago as part of a push by the Biden administration to end the war with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government propelled one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.