A top U.S. Senate Democrat said on Thursday he cannot support for now a Trump administration plan to sell high-tech munitions to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over concerns about the war in Yemen, a decision that could derail the sale.

The United States rejected a UAE request for intelligence, minesweeping and airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets for the military operation in Yemen�s Hodeidah, a UAE official said on Thursday.

French special forces are present on the ground in Yemen with forces from the United Arab Emirates, French newspaper Le Figaro reported on Saturday, citing two military sources.

The United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, called on the warring sides on Wednesday to avoid a battle for the port city of Hodeidah and return to the negotiating table.

Troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition on Wednesday launched an assault on Yemen�s main port city of Hodeidah, in the biggest battle of a three-year war between an alliance of Arab states and the Iran-aligned Houthis.

The United States warned Monday that aid must flow through the Yemeni port of Hodeida amid reports that Emirati forces plan to seize it from Houthi rebels.

The United Nations mobilized Monday to avert a "fierce, bloody battle" for a key port in Yemen that provides a lifeline for food, medicine and other vital supplies.

A U.N. peace plan for Yemen calls on the Houthi movement to give up its ballistic missiles in return for an end to a bombing campaign against it by a Saudi-led coalition and a transitional governance agreement, according to a draft of the document and sources.

Saudi air defences on Tuesday intercepted a ballistic missile that targeted the western city of Yanbu after being fired from rebel-held territory in neighbouring Yemen, a Saudi-led military coalition said.

The UAE�s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said that victory over the Houthis in Yemen was �close�, as the Yemeni forces and the Arab coalition were closing in on the rebel-held port city of Al Hodeidah.

Unidentified forces attacked a U.N. aid vessel off the main Yemeni port of Hodeidah at the weekend and started a fire in the engine room, port authorities said on Monday.

Oman will close the country�s second largest airport in Salalah starting midnight (2000 GMT) on Thursday for 24 hours due to a tropical storm, the Public Authority for Civil Aviation announced.

A United Arab Emirates (UAE) foundation announced it is building a $100 million power plant in the southern Yemeni city Aden to solve the chronic electricity problem in Yemen's interim capital, the foundation announced on Thursday.

Forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh battled their former Houthi allies on Thursday over control of a key outpost, marking the first such battle between the two sides since the veteran leader was killed last year.

African migrants and asylum seekers in Yemen are being subjected to physical and sexual abuse in detention, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

Yemen�s foreign minister called on Tuesday for a return to the negotiating table to end the war in the Arabian peninsula�s poorest country, where Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces are fighting Iran-aligned Houthi fighters.

Amnesty International on Friday denounced Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a coalition battling the Houthis in Yemen, saying such traffic made a "mockery" of a global arms trade treaty.

There is an urgent need to find a political solution to Yemen�s war, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday, as he voiced hope for a U.N. special envoy�s peace efforts and firmly backed Riyadh.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman discussed the situation in war-torn Yemen during a meeting on Tuesday, including Houthi rebel and Iranian activity and the humanitarian crisis, the White House said.

A senior Iranian security official has called for dialogue between factions in Yemen to end the conflict there, Iranian state media reported on Saturday.