United Arab Emirates has said war is over for its troops in Yemen

UAE chickens out of Yemen

The United Arab Emirates has said war is over for its troops in Yemen after a nearly 15-month intervention as part of a Saudi-led coalition in which around 80 lost their lives.

The announcement by a government minister, which the crown prince of the UAE's richest emirate Abu Dhabi then posted on his official Twitter account, came with large swathes of the country, including the capital Sanaa, still in the hands of Iran-backed rebels.

"Our standpoint today is clear -- war is over for our troops, we're monitoring political arrangements (and) empowering Yemenis in liberated areas," state minister for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said.His comments came in a speech late on Wednesday to foreign ambassadors and senior Emirati officials, including Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.Sheikh Mohammed is also deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces.

The UAE was a mainstay of the Saudi-led coalition which intervened in Yemen in March 2015 as the Iran-backed rebels threatened to overrun the whole country, prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.