UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter his country was not intimidated by Al Houthi threats. “Al Houthis’ comments threatening the UAE and its capital are tangible proof of the need for the Decisive Storm (operation),” Gargash said, referring to the Saudi-led coalition fighting to restore the legitimate government in Yemen. “Iran’s militias have vile objectives and represent a real threat,” he added.

“We are not afraid of the Houthi threats and stupidity; it reveals the desperation of those who defend fragmented illusions, and it certainly reveals the intentions for the Arabian Gulf region security and stability,” Gargash wrote.

The UAE minister also said that the challenges we are facing requires more solidarity among Arab countries. He said that the Arab coalition is an example of this solidarity. Gargash’s tweets came hours after open threats made by Al Houthi militia leader, Abdul Malek Al Houthi.

Al Houthi leader Abdul Malek Al Houthi said on Thursday his group could target Saudi oil tankers should Saudi Arabia attack Yemen’s main port at Hodeidah. He also claimed rebel missiles could reach other areas in the Gulf.

Earlier this week, Yemeni president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, said that only a military option would put an end to the Al Houthi coup as peace efforts by the UN envoy to Yemen have largely reached a deadlock. Speaking to London-based Al Quds Al Arabi daily, Hadi noted that his government was in agreement with the Saudi-led coalition and the Americans that military pressure alone would bring the Iran-backed Al Houthi militia back to the table and would force them into disarming.

“The American administration seeks to strike Iranian interests in Yemen by supporting a military solution, because the Americans believe that the end of the Iranian project in Yemen would mark the beginning of the end of the Iranian imperial ambition,” Hadi said. Hadi came to power in 2012 months after massive Arab Spring protests ousted his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh and is recognised internationally as the legitimate ruler of Yemen.

In early 2015, north Yemen rebels, backed by Iran and Saleh, placed Hadi under a house arrest, forcing him into decamping to Aden where he sought military intervention from Saudi Arabia.

Despite Hadi’s stress on the importance of military pressure on Al Houthis, his forces have stalled at the rugged mountains of Nehim, just outside Sana’a, despite receiving massive air support and logistics from the Saudi-led coalition.

Hadi blamed Saleh for Al Houthi empowerment and said that Al Houthis now had the advantage over Saleh’s forces militarily. Any political solution to the Yemen crisis would have to result in the disarmament of Al Houthis, he added. Three suspected al-Qaeda militants were killed in a drone strike in southern Yemen late on Thursday, a local security official and residents said. The strike in Mudiyah district in Abyan province on the Arabian Sea coast had targeted a motorcycle which the suspected militants were riding, Reuters quoted the official as saying.

Abyan is one of several provinces in central and southern Yemen where al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operates. AQAP has taken advantage of the war that erupted after the Houthis and Saleh’s forces staged a coup against the legitimate authority in Yemen in 2014.

Meanwhile, Yemeni legitimate forces have forced al-Qaeda militants out of an area near Mudiyah, Sky News Arabia quoted military sources as saying last Wednesday. Local Yemeni sources said that the legitimate forces entered al-Wadih and took base in the government compound. They also set up checkpoints at its entrances as part of efforts to combat terrorism.

That development came in line with orders by Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr on the formation of a security committee to confront the danger of al-Qaeda in Hadramawt and Shabwah, the sources said. The committee is expected to make proposals on ways to confront such a danger in the two governorates. Bin Daghr also called for the rejection of extremist thoughts, the sources added.