US, UK, French forces aid push to seize Hodeidah

SANAA, June 17 (YPA) -French special forces are present on the ground in Yemen supporting the ongoing Saudi-led military operation on the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, according to Le Figaro newspaper.

France, along with the United States and Britain, backs Riyadh in the Yemen conflict and provides weapons to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The French Defense Ministry said on Friday that Paris was studying the possibility of carrying out a mine-sweeping operation to provide access to Hodeidah once Saudi Arabia and the UAE had wrapped up their military operations.

The Defense Ministry added that France at this stage had no military operations in Hodeidah region and was not part of the Saudi offensive.

Ansarullah Spokesman Mohammad Abdulsalam, however, stressed that British and French warships are on standby on Yemen’s Western coast to launch missiles and aerial attacks.

Abdulsalam told al-Masirah television network that the Hodeidah assault is an American-British operation as the aggressor states – Saudi Arabia and the UAE – are not capable of launching such a campaign.

Abdulsalam also hailed counter-attacks by Ansarullah forces against the Western-sponsored aggressors.

More than 70 percent of Yemeni imports pass through Hodeidah’s docks and the fighting has raised UN fears of humanitarian catastrophe in a country already teetering on the brink of famine.