Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, second deputy premier and minister of interior, being briefed by Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, minister of defense, on the military plans against the Houthis in Riyadh early Thursday. — SPA Saudi Gazette report Warplanes from Saudi Arabia and Arab allies on Thursday launched “Operation Decisive Storm” against the Houthi militia in Yemen and in support of legitimate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his loyalists in the country's south. Hadi later arrived in Riyadh en route to the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh where an Arab summit is scheduled for Saturday. The operation against Houthi rebels has the complete and unequivocal backing of the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan and the Arab League bloc. The UAE has deployed 30 fighter jets, Bahrain 15, Kuwait 15, Qatar 10 and Jordan 6 warplanes, according to Al Arabiya news channel. Saudi Arabia deployed 150,000 soldiers, 100 fighter jets and navy units. Non-Gulf states have also showed their support to the operation. Jordan deployed six fighter jets, Morocco, which expressed “complete solidarity” with Saudi Arabia, provided six fighter jets while Sudan supplied three. One Jordanian official told Reuters: “This is in line with supporting legitimacy in Yemen and its security and stability... Yemen and the Gulf's security is a high strategic interest (for Jordan).” Egypt's air force and navy are also participating in the Saudi-led operation, the presidency said in a statement on Thursday. The government had previously said it would be prepared to commit ground troops as well if required. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office said any threat to Saudi Arabia would “evoke a strong response” from Islamabad. Sharif chaired a “high-level meeting” which concluded that any threat to Saudi Arabia's territorial integrity would evoke a strong response from Pakistan, Sharif's office said. Pakistan would send a delegation, including military officials, to Saudi Arabia on Friday, the statement said. Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi said in Sharm El-Sheikh that the operation was directed against specific Houthi targets based on a request by President Hadi. Several other countries including Turkey, France and Belgium also offered support. Adel Al-Jubeir, the Kingdom's Ambassador to the United States, announced from Washington that a coalition of 10 countries, including the five Gulf states, had been set up to protect the Yemeni government. “We will do whatever it takes in order to protect the legitimate government of Yemen from falling,” Jubeir said. The United States said it would provide “logistical and intelligence support” to the operation. Iran, which tacitly supports the Houthi militia, denounced the airstrikes and said the coalition against the Houthis would complicate efforts to end a conflict likely to inflame the sectarian animosities fueling wars around the Middle East. But a senior Iranian official ruled out military intervention. Warplanes bombed the main airport and the nearby Al-Dulaimi military air base of the Houthi-held capital Sanaa, residents said, in an apparent attempt to weaken the Houthis' air power and ability to fire missiles. A Reuters witness said four or five houses near Sanaa airport had been damaged. Rescue workers put the death toll from the airstrikes at 13, including a doctor who had been pulled from the rubble of a damaged clinic. Meanwhile, Yemen shut its major seaports on Thursday while Saudi Arabia halted flights to seven airports south of the Kingdom. The White House has voiced support for the campaign against the Houthis. “President Obama has authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to GCC-led military operations,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council. The Saudi-led military coalition declared Yemen's airspace as a “restricted area” after airstrikes were ordered early Thursday. Yemeni Foreign Minister Riad Yassine told Al Arabiya News that the operations would continue until the Houthis agreed to join peace talks and backtrack on all measures taken since their occupation of Sanaa last September. “We do not recognize any of what happened after Sept. 21,” Yassine told Al Arabiya News, saying the military operation would help the southern Yemenis “regain confidence.” Demonstrations reportedly broke out in Yemen's Hadramout and Aden in support of the Saudi airstrikes on the Houthi militia. The military operation came shortly after Arab Gulf states, barring Oman, announced that they have decided to “repel Houthi aggression” in neighboring Yemen, following a request from Hadi. Equities slide Stock markets across the Gulf region and other parts of the Middle East closed slightly lower on Thursday, an expected tumble after the airstrikes on Yemen. Oil prices were also hit by the jitters over the escalation in Yemen, with Brent crude up $2.34 at $58.81 and US crude up $2.20 at $51.41 in electronic trading. The biggest drops in Gulf equities were in Oman and Kuwait, where markets closed around 2.5 percent lower. Markets in Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai slipped just under one percent. Egypt's EGX 30 dropped 1.6 percent at closing Thursday, the final day of trading for the week across the region. Saudi Arabia's stock market had lost 5 percent on Wednesday, but gained nearly a half percent by closing Thursday, alongside the bump in higher oil prices.
