Warships belonging to the Al Saud regime’s navy have reportedly evacuated a number of foreign diplomats from Yemen’s southern port city of Aden.

“Saudi naval forces carried out Operation Tornado to evacuate dozens of diplomats, including Saudis, from Aden,” the kingdom’s state television reported on Saturday.

Some Persian Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, have already relocated their embassies from Sana’a to Aden.

On Friday, The Associated Press cited unnamed Egyptian officials as saying that Riyadh and Cairo had deployed warships to the strategic strait of Bab el-Mandab off Yemen’s coast in an apparent preparation for a ground intervention in the country.

The evacuation of diplomats comes amid the Saudi-led airstrikes on the Arabian Peninsula.

On March 26, the Al Saud regime unleashed deadly air raids against Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore fugitive Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh, to power.

This is while the Houthis say Hadi lost his legitimacy as president of the impoverished country after he escaped the capital in February.

A handout picture provided by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on March 26, 2015 shows Saudi Defence Minister Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz AlSaud (R) receiving fugitive Yemeni president, Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, at an airbase in Riyadh. © AFP 

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries, but the Yemeni parliament did not approve the resignation.

Earlier this month, the fugitive president fled Aden to the Saudi capital city of Riyadh after Ansarullah revolutionaries advanced on Aden, where he had sought to set up a rival power base.

The Ansarullah fighters took control of the Yemeni capital in September 2014 and are currently moving southward. The revolutionaries said the Hadi government was incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and containing the growing wave of corruption and terror.

The Riyadh regime’s blatant invasion of Yemen’s sovereignty comes against a backdrop of total silence on the part of international bodies, especially the United Nations. The world body has so far failed to show any reaction to the Saudi violation of Yemen’s sovereignty.

Reports say at least 40 civilians have so far lost their lives in the Saudi-led aerial assaults against Yemen.

'Heaviest attacks so far'



Yousef Mawry, Press TV's correspondent in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, said on Saturday that last night’s airstrikes on Sana’a were the heaviest so far while raids were also conducted in other parts of the country.

Mawry also said Saudi Arabia plans to disarm the Houthis and force them out of the capital in order to pave the way for the fugitive president, Hadi, to return and rule Yemen but it is highly unlikely that this will happen.

He said the situation in Yemen is escalating and more Saudi-led airstrikes are expected to be waged.

The majority of the Yemeni people are against the Saudi-led airstrikes, Mawry said, adding that they believe the attacks violate the sovereignty of the nation.

He said the Yemeni people also believe that there is a hideous Western agenda that aims to destabilize Yemen and install a puppet regime which will seek and preserve the interest of Saudi Arabia and the US.

By Press TV