UAE, France announce implementation of joint defense agreements

ByNews Desk- The Cradle 

France has painstakingly backed the UAE in its war on Yemen, and during Ansarallah's successful counter-attacks against the UAE

The UAE Ministry of Defense announced on 4 February the implementation of a joint cooperation and defense agreement with France in an effort to defend against the recent counter-attacks by Ansarallah on the UAE.

A tweet by the UAE defense ministry said that Saleh al-Amiri, Commander of the UAE Joint Chiefs of Staff, had visited the French Armed Forces Headquarters, and consulted on areas of cooperation and joint defense.

Earlier, French Defense Minister Florence Parly said that Paris would help the UAE, its main ally, to ensure its airspace security in the face of “attacks” by Yemen’s Ansarallah.

Last month, Yemen’s resistance group Ansarallah launched a series of unprecedented counter-attacks deep inside the UAE. The strikes were in response to the intensification of UAE aggression in the Shabwa province.

Parly said that France was taking steps to show solidarity with the UAE.

The French defense minister stated that France has decided to provide military support to the UAE, especially to protect its airspace against any “intrusions.”

In a phone call with the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned Ansarallah’s attacks against the UAE, and stressed that a political solution is the ultimate solution to the Yemeni crisis.

Parly noted that Rafale fighters, along with the UAE Armed Forces, carry out surveillance, reconnaissance and, if necessary, interception missions.

During Macron’s visit to Abu Dhabi in early December, the two sides signed a number of security and defense agreements, as well as contracts to purchase French Rafale fighter jets.

France and UAE signed an $18b mega-deal on 4 December 2021. The French Defense Ministry said the deal was France’s largest-ever weapons contract for export.

French jets and personnel are stationed at Al-Dhafra Air Base, a significant facility located outside the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi that also houses thousands of US forces.

In January 2015, Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, with the support of the US, invaded Yemen with the intention of crushing the Ansarallah resistance movement and restoring the government of former western-friendly president, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.

The war on Yemen has killed more than 230,000 people, directly and indirectly, through diseases caused by the lack of proper access to health services and clean water due to airstrikes on hospitals and water wells by a Saudi-led coalition that includes the UAE.