Malaysia decides to withdraw troops from Saudi Arabia

In what can be dubbed as a significant policy change, Malaysia has decided to withdraw its troops from Saudi Arabia.

"Malaysia has always maintained its neutrality. It has never pursued an aggressive foreign policy," Mohammed Sabu, defence minister told the government-owned Malaysian National News Agency.

This statement had to be made as it would now drive home the point that his country’s troops are by no means taking part in the operations in Yemen. Apparently, Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of an intervention in Yemen and Malaysia wants to steer clear any such partaking.

Saudi Arabia is part of a coterie which includes many other Arab nations which launched a military campaign back in 2015 as a mark of support to Yemen’s Internationally recognised government. This was also marked as an attempt to force a roll back of the advances made by Houthi rebels after they had taken over almost the entire country in 2014.

Earlier, a United Nations report said that a Saudi Arabia-led coalition was the main reason behind the death of children and injuries in war-ravaged Yemen.

Many countries have since backtracked and have evacuated their forces and have rescinded their support from the US-backed coalition. As of now, only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are responsible for attacks in Yemen.

It has to be mentioned here that back in 2015 former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak had sent across troops to Saudi Arabia to enable the evacuation of Malaysian nationals in Yemen.

Thus, the number of Malaysian troops currently on the ground in Saudi is still not very clear.

The minister further quipped that the decision to withdraw troops from the kingdom was taking last week and that talks have to commence with the foreign ministry to facilitate the process and that the troops would soon be back home.