UAE blocks missiles as Yemen's Houthis attack region's business hub

He said it had also launched drones towards Dubai."We advise foreign companies and investors in the UAE to leave as it has become unsafe," he said, adding the group was ready to "meet escalation with escalation."The foreign ministry of the UAE, part of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), called the attack a "criminal escalation" and said it had a right to respond.The U.S. military said it had fired multiple Patriot missile interceptors at two inbound missiles, and acknowledged simultaneous efforts by UAE's military."The combined efforts successfully prevented both missiles from impacting the base," said a spokesperson at U.S. Central Command who represents U.S. forces in the Middle East.The Emirati ambassador to Washington, Yousef al Otaiba, tweeted that close cooperation with the United States had helped to deflect the attack, and the U.S. State Department reaffirmed Washington's commitment to strengthen the defenses of its Saudi and Emirati partners.U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, however, said the Houthi attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia, along with Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen, represented a "troubling escalation" in violence, and he called anew for a ceasefire.Price declined to say if U.S. President Joe Biden's administration would accede to a UAE request to restore the Houthis to a U.S. list of foreign terrorist groups, reimposing financial sanctions on them.