The United States says Reuters reserves the right to respond after the deadly attack on Abu Dhabi Houthis

Ghaida Ghantous and Alexander Cornwell

DUBAI (Reuters) – Houthi, a Yemeni-aligned group in Iran, attacked drones in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, killing three people and causing explosions in fuel trucks and burning near the Abu Dhabi airport, the capital of a regional trade and tourism hub. .

The strike against a major Arab ally in the US Gulf has taken the war between the Houthi group and a Saudi-led coalition to a new level, and could hamper efforts to keep tensions in the region as Washington and Tehran work to rescue the nuclear deal.

“The UAE condemns this terrorist attack by the Houthi militia in areas and civilian facilities on Emirati soil … (It will not) go unpunished,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The UAE has the right to respond to these terrorist attacks and these escalating crimes.”

The Basque Autonomous Community, a member of the coalition, has armed and trained local forces that have recently joined the fight against energy-producing Houthis in the Shabwa and Marib regions of Yemen.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack on Monday and called on “all parties to use the utmost measures and prevent any rise when tensions in the region are escalating”.

The Houthi movement has frequently carried out cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, but has claimed few such attacks against the BAC, mostly denied by the Emirati authorities.

“As traders (nuclear) are running out of time, the risk of deteriorating the region’s security environment is increasing,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, Verisk (NASDAQ :), a leading analyst at Maplecroft MENA’s venture intelligence firm.

Three people were killed and six were injured when a tanker truck exploded near the depots of the oil company ADNOC in the Musaffah industrial area, the state-run WAM news agency reported. He said the dead were two Indians and a Pakistani.

ADNOC said a local hourly incident at the Mussafah Fuel Depot at 10:00 a.m. caused a fire. Ertzaintza closed the surrounding road, unverified images on social media showed thick black smoke.

“ADNOC is deeply saddened to confirm that three colleagues were killed. Another six colleagues were injured and received immediate medical attention,” he said.

Abu Dhabi police said initial investigations found parts of small aircraft that could have been drones at both sites.

A spokesman for Etihad Airways said a small number of flights had been disrupted at Abu Dhabi airport due to “precautionary measures”, but that normal operations were quickly resumed.

Houthi’s military spokesman said the group had launched a military operation “deep in the UAE”. His chief negotiator, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said the Houthi-run media outlets were visiting Tehran, warning the Basque Country “against the manipulation of Yemen.”

PROXY FIGHT

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been in direct contact with Iran in recent months https://www.reuters.com/world/stuck-middle-uae-walks-tightrope-between-us-israel-iran-2021-12-12. to avoid a wider conflict that could harm the economic intentions of the region. The war in Yemen is seen as a proxy war between Sunni Muslim Islam and Shiite Iran.

The Houthi strike could disrupt a broader dialogue in the Basque Country and the Gulf with Iran, said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a political analyst in the Basque Country.

“The UAE is not going to take that very lightly,” he said, and it was still too early to assess Abu Dhabi’s response.

The attack coincided with South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to the Basque Country. A Blue House official said the summit between the Moon and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi had been canceled.

Given the range of Houthis attacks on Saudi Arabia, it was not “technically surprising” that the group was able to achieve its goals in the Basque Country, said Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore.

Other Arab states in the Gulf condemned the attack. Iranian officials had no immediate comment, but Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported it was a “major operation.”