Houthi drone attacks expose UAE vulnerabilities, say analysts

Description

This attack brings home to the UAE that they were playing the game of a major power in the region,” said Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at the School of Security Studies at King’s College London. It made the Gulf country realise that “they are, after all a small state with a lot of vulnerabilities,” Krieg told Al Jazeera.

All their [Emirati] foreign policy adventures have brought home that they are quite vulnerable to unconventional and asymmetric threats from different groups they’re fighting across the region,” said Krieg, referring to the drone attack.

“Despite claiming to have the most sophisticated air defences in the region, a drone from Yemen has landed at a strategic site in Abu Dhabi.

“This insecurity has been brought upon them by their own adventures … as unfinished wars now come back to haunt them,” he added.

Period	18 Jan 2022
Held at	Al Jazeera, Qatar