Sept 29 (Reuters) – UAE Vice President Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday and met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the kingdom’s defence minister, the first visit by a senior UAE official to the kingdom since a deep rift emerged between the two Gulf powers last year.
The visit, following an invitation by Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, occurred as Riyadh faces increasing pressure from the Iran-backed Houthis, who have for weeks fired salvos of missiles and drones at the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia has been trying to rally international support to confront the Houthis, but it was not immediately clear if that request extended to the UAE.
The United Arab Emirates was once Saudi Arabia’s main regional partner in the war against the Houthis.
Sheikh Mansour and Prince Khalid discussed topics of mutual interest and ways to enhance cooperation and coordination between the two countries, according to a post by the Saudi defence ministry on X.
Sheikh Mansour, in a separate meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday, reviewed the “fraternal relations” between the two countries and developments in the region, the Saudi state news agency reported.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia’s years-long disagreements over everything from geopolitics to oil policy came out into the open in December when an advance by a UAE-backed southern Yemeni separatist group brought it close to Saudi borders.
Saudi Arabia condemned the UAE’s involvement and carried out an airstrike on a UAE-linked weapons shipment at the port of Mukalla in Yemen.
The UAE then announced it had withdrawn all its forces from Yemen but tensions have remained.
Yemen has been caught in a 12-year-long civil war since the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led military intervention.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Writing by Yomna Ehab; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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