US Intelligence Denies UAE Request to Support New Offensive in Yemen - Report

The Saudi-led coalition’s largest assault in the armed conflict with Yemen, Operation “Golden Victory,” appears not to have gone as smoothly as possible after the US denied a request from the United Arab Emirates to supply intelligence, minesweeping and surveillance assets during the invasion of the key port of al-Hudaydah.

According to a Reuters report, one US intelligence official said that the UAE request for military and intelligence support was dismissed.

The US is seeing growing domestic opposition to its role in the conflict: providing fuel and targeting support to Arab warplanes conducting bombing missions against wedding-goers, among others, in Yemen, though Congress has fallen short of summoning the political will to actually ban the Pentagon and intelligence communities from supporting the Saudi-led effort.

For example, one Vox report cites Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as the "architect" of the war in Yemen.

France provided minesweeping support at the UAE's request after the US did not want to or was not able to, but it's not clear if the mass assault on Hudaydah received other support in the form of intelligence, surveillance or reconnaissance assets, as the Emirates requested.

Earlier this week, humanitarian aid workers fled Hudaydah in the face of an imminent invasion by the Saudi-led coalition, which kicked off on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Arab jets and ships have pounded Houthi positions south of Hudaydah since Tuesday, and on Thursday Saudi-aligned Yemeni government forces established control over the Ad-Durayhimi area south of Hudaydah, Sputnik News reported.

On Wednesday, multiple sources confirmed that Houthis successfully sank at least one UAE naval vessel involved in the assault on Hudaydah.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the ongoing offensive would significantly damage "the prospects for a political settlement of the Yemen crisis."