Yemeni sources confirmed that Saudi forces began securing ports in Yemen after the UAE reduced its military presence there.
Yemeni military officials and Yemeni government officials told Reuters on Thursday that Saudi officers had taken command of the military bases at the Red Sea ports of Makhka and Nukha on the west coast of Yemen.
The sources added that Saudi Arabia has taken these measures to secure the two strategic ports after the UAE reduced its military presence in them significantly.
Riyadh sent an unspecified number of troops to the interim capital of Aden, one of the country's main ports, with troops loyal to the emirates, and troops were sent to the small island of Brim in the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
A senior UAE official said the troop cuts were made after discussions with Riyadh and his country was not concerned about a vacuum in Yemen because it had trained 90,000 Yemeni soldiers.
A few days ago, an Emirati official was quoted by AFP as saying that the withdrawal of UAE troops from Yemen comes in response to what he described as redeployment, and for reasons of "strategic and tactical".
The official pointed to the withdrawal of the UAE forces from Hodeidah (west of Yemen) and other areas, and put this partial withdrawal within the "transition from the strategy of military force first to the strategy of peace first."
According to experts, there are factors that explain the reduction of the UAE military presence in Yemen, including damage to the UAE on more than one level because of its intervention in Yemen, including the killing of 112 soldiers since 2015, and the fear of Abu Dhabi from the outbreak of military confrontation in the Gulf under the current tension between Iran on the one hand and America and its allies on the other.