UAE extends mandatory military service for high school graduates to 16 months

Move comes as United Arab Emirates builds up its army amid concerns over Iran and the ongoing conflict in Yemen

By AP 8 July 2018, 2:32 pm

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An Emirati gunner watches for enemy fire from the rear gate of a United Arab Emirates Chinook military helicopter flying over Yemen. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck, File)

The United Arab Emirates says it has extended its mandatory military service for men who graduated from high school from 12 to 16 months.

The UAE’s armed forces made the announcement in a statement issued late Saturday.

The military called the mandatory service one of the UAE’s “most effective and important” strategic moves, in the light of its “anticipated strategic outcomes in political, military, security, national, social and economic terms.”

The UAE began mandatory military service for men between the ages of 18 to 30 in 2014. Those who haven’t completed high school must serve two years. Military service for women remains voluntary.

The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite rebels in Yemen, and has built up its military over its concerns about Iran.

This image grab taken from a AFPTV video shows Yemeni pro-government forces firing a heavy machine gun at the south of Hodeida airport, in Yemen’s Hodeida province, on June 15, 2018. (AFP Photo/AFPTV)

The coalition launched an offensive in the rebel-held port city of Hodeida in June, in a bid to break a three-year stalemate in its war against the Iran-aligned rebels, known as Houthis.

Around 70 percent of Yemen’s imported food and medicine arrives in Hodeida, making it a vital lifeline for a country that is already on the brink of famine. The UN considers Yemen to be the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22 million people in need of assistance.

The coalition went to war with the Houthis in March 2015, hoping to restore the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi after the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa. The government has called on the Houthis to withdraw from all the areas they control, including a “complete and unconditional” pullout from Hodeida.

The Houthis have refused to withdraw from Hodeida, but they recently offered to let the UN manage the port as part of a cease-fire in the city.