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The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have officially denied Western media reports of alleged preparations for a joint ground military operation in Yemen against the Houthi group that controls a large part of the country. This was reported by Reuters on 17 April.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported that Yemeni forces opposing the Iranian-backed Houthis are negotiating with the United States and the Gulf states on a possible offensive on the west coast of Yemen in coordination with US air strikes.
On Wednesday, a senior UAE official called the information “unfounded”, while a Saudi official said the reports were “lies”.
“Among all the wild and unconfirmed stories circulating online, this one definitely wins the award for the most misleading news of the week by a long shot,” Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s assistant minister of political affairs, told Reuters.
Context: war in Yemen and escalation in the Red Sea
The Saudi-led coalition, which included the UAE, launched a military campaign against the Houthis in 2015, supporting the Yemeni government, which lost control of the capital Sanaa in 2014. Although the UAE withdrew most of its troops from Yemen in 2019, it retained influence through the local armed groups it supported.
Major hostilities in the country stopped in 2022 after a ceasefire that allowed the Houthis to maintain control over the north of the country and a large part of its population.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have stepped up attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, claiming that this is a response to Israel’s war in Gaza. In March 2025, US President Donald Trump increased the number of airstrikes on Houthi positions, warning that if the attacks on trade did not stop, “hell will fall on you like you’ve never seen before”.
Western analysts point out that the Red Sea coast, where the media speculated about the offensive, has already been the site of a large-scale but unsuccessful coalition operation against the Houthis in Hodeidah, the key port they hold.
Despite rumours of a resumption of the active phase of the conflict, officials in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi insist that no new ground operation is planned, and that all media speculation is untrue.
The Pentagon has not yet commented on the situation.
