Saudi Arabia, UAE pledge to continue development efforts in Yemen‏

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have pledged to keep their coalition war against the Houthi rebels together after a pullout by southern separatists.

A joint communique on Monday said " both nations' political, military, relief and development efforts would continue". It also said "the countries both rejected and condemned the accusations and defamation campaigns targeting the UAE since its decision in June to redeploy troops."

The Saudi-UAE statement urged all parties to disengage and redeploy troops. It reiterated a Saudi call for a summit in the kingdom to resolve the standoff while stressing the need to preserve the stability, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen under the legitimate president of Yemen.

Saudi Vice-Minister of Defence Khalid bin Salman tweeted "Internal dialogue, and not fighting, is the only way to resolve internal Yemeni differences" .

"We are working with the UAE for security and stability in Aden, Shabwa and Abyan and...to unify ranks and voices to combat terrorist threats, whether from the Iran-backed Houthis or from Al Qaeda and Daesh," Khalid added.