Qatar said it has found itself forced to join the Arab Coalition in Yemen.

:: The head of the so-called “Revolutionary Committees of the Houthi” backed by Iran, Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, welcomed on Wednesday the statements made by the Qatari Defense Minister Khalid Al-Attiyah, on the participation of Doha in the Arab Coalition to support legitimacy in Yemen.

“Qatar has found itself forced to join the Arab Coalition in Yemen,” Qatar’s defense minister said. This is the first time that Qatar acknowledged it did not want to take part in the mission from the start.

Al-Attiyah told a state-run Turkish television channel that “Qatar was never inside Yemen, we were on the Saudi border in all our missions,” adding that “at the beginning of the crisis (with UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Egypt) we were asked to leave the Saudi border and we did so and our armies returned.”

On his Facebook page, Al-Houthi described Attiyah’s remarks as “an important step”, expressing his hope for “more Qatari stances.” The leadership of the Arab Coalition led by Saudi Arabia ended Qatar’s participation in the Arab Coalition for the Support of Legitimacy in Yemen on June 5th.