Eurasia Press & News
Yemen’s Hadramawt province is launching an operation to “peacefully” take back military sites after a sweeping advance by UAE-backed separatists, its governor said on Friday.
Salem Al-Khanbashi made the announcement shortly after he was also appointed to lead the Saudi-supported National Shield forces in resource-rich Hadramawt, bordering Saudi Arabia.
“This operation is not a declaration of war, nor an attempt to escalate tensions,” Khanbashi was cited as saying in a statement by the official Saba Net news agency.
“This operation does not target any political or social group, nor does it target civilians,” he added.
The secessionist Southern Transitional Council forces’ march through Hadramawt and neighbouring Mahra, bordering Oman, has escalated tensions between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, rival powerbrokers in Yemen’s government-run areas.
The wealthy Gulf powers formed the backbone of a military coalition aimed at dislodging the Iran-backed Houthi rebels after they forced the government out of the capital Sanaa in 2014 and seized Yemen’s most populated areas.
After a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place and the Saudis and Emiratis are backing different factions in the government-controlled territories.
Saudi delegation ‘blocked’
Also on Tuesday, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen Mohammed AlJabir said the SCT had blocked a delegation from Riyadh from landing at Aden airport on Thursday, accusing the group of “intransigence”.
Saudi Arabia “has faced consistent rejection and intransigence from (SCT leader) Aidaros Alzubidi, most recently the refusal to issue a permit for a plane transporting an official Saudi delegation”, AlJabir posted on X.
On Thursday, Yemen’s STC-controlled transport ministry had denounced a Saudi demand that all planes to and from the UAE make a stop in Saudi Arabia for security checks.
According to Flightradar, no planes have taken off or landed at Aden airport for nearly 24 hours, although the ministry did not officially announce its closure.
Saudi Arabia, the main backer of the Yemeni government, has repeatedly urged the STC to withdraw from the recently conquered territories.
After the Saudi-led coalition bombed an alleged Emirati weapons shipment on Tuesday, the UAE’s defence ministry said it would withdraw its remaining troops in Yemen.
The Yemeni government comprises a fractious coalition of groups including the SCT, united by their opposition to the Houthi rebels.
The STC’s advance raised the possibility that South Yemen, a separate state from 1967 to 1990, might declare independence, while dealing a hammer blow to slow-moving peace negotiations with the Houthis.
