DUBAI, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition has completed the besiege of Yemen's port city Hodeidah and the "liberation of the city" will be key to find a "solution" for the war-torn country, said a United Arab Emirates (UAE) official.
The current operations in Hodeidah "successfully achieved its objectives," UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said in a statement released on his Twitter account Friday.
The port city Hodeidah, located on the south-western Red Seas coast, is strategically important because it is the gateway to the Yemeni capital Sanaa which the Iranian-back Houthi rebels have occupied since September 2014.
Gargash further said the Houthi rebels were paying the price for having been "absent from the Geneva consultations."
Geneva peace talks to find a political solution broke down earlier last week as the Houthi delegation did not show up.
Gargash said "we remain convinced that the liberation of Hodeidah is the key to the solution in Yemen."
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition that has interfering in Yemen's civil war since 2015 against Iranian-backed Houthis in support of Yemen exiled government.
