Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed says Iran-backed militia’s use of drones represents ‘new era of radical terrorism’

• Food and fuel run low as besieged Yemeni city braces for Houthi breakthrough

The future of western security is being fought out in the mountains and hills surrounding the south-western Yemeni city of Taiz, the country’s former prime minster has said.

Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, now an adviser to Yemen’s president, said it would be catastrophic if the city fell to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, since control of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait in the Red Sea and the road to Aden – the site of the UN-recognised government – would be lost.