Yemen’s new Chief of Staff Abdullah Al-Nakhi announced on Monday that his country’s naval forces will hold drills with their South Korean counterpart in regional water off the Nishtun port.
He told Asharq Al-Awsat that Seoul’s agreement to hold the drills is a message to the world that the Yemeni regional waters were almost secure.
He therefore, called on navies throughout the world to cooperate with Yemeni forces to rehabilitate their units to allow them to protect regional waters from terrorist acts and smuggling operations.
The “Red Star” drills will take place in January, he said.
Nakhi also spoke of military cooperation between Yemeni, American, British and French forces, as well as the Saudi-led Arab coalition, in training his country’s troops.
“The military command is working on rehabilitating the navy and it is taking steady steps forward in that regard. These efforts will have a major impact on the army and navy’s performance,” he stressed.
On the restructuring of the army, he said a plan to that end has been drafted in coordination with the political and military leaderships.
The command will not dismiss any cadre, but it will resort to all available expertise in order to rebuild the armed forces based on modern foundations, he explained.
On field developments, Nakhi said that signs on all fronts indicate that the operation to liberate the coastal Hodeidah province from the Iran-backed Houthis was going according to the amended plan set by the Arab coalition, legitimate government, national military and popular resistance.
“It is only a matter of days before the coup militias are defeated,” he vowed.
