New crisis in Yemen: Riyadh-Abu Dhabi Dispute Escalates

TEHRAN (Defapress) - Local sources in Yemen announced that Saudi warplanes targeted Yemeni separatist positions in response to the massive advance of the Southern Transitional Council, killing seven UAE-backed forces.

These attacks were carried out in a situation where these Saudi actions against the Southern Transitional Council are the first deadly attack by the coalition against the group since it seized parts of southern Yemen. In addition, the casualties inflicted on the Southern Transitional Council are the first casualties caused by coalition fire since the separatists seized the provinces of Hadhramaut and Al-Mahrah last month.

Following the attacks, the Southern Transitional Council’s military spokesman said the council was engaged in a “decisive and existential war” with Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces, describing the battle as a fight against radical Islamism, an issue that has long been a concern for the UAE.

While Saudi Arabia and the UAE have supported rival factions in areas controlled by the Yemeni government for years, the STC’s recent advance has angered Riyadh and pitted the two Gulf oil powers against each other.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Abdul Malik, head of the STC in the Hadhramaut Valley and Hadhramaut Desert, said seven airstrikes had been carried out on the Al-Khasah camp, killing seven people and wounding more than 20.

The airstrikes came shortly after pro-Saudi forces launched a campaign to peacefully seize military bases in Hadhramaut. Meanwhile, Hadhramaut Governor Salem Al-Khanbashi, the leader of the pro-Saudi local forces, was quoted by Saba Net as saying that “this operation is not a declaration of war and is not an attempt to escalate tensions.”

The Hadhramaut Governor and leader of the pro-Saudi local forces added that “this operation does not target any political or social group,” and emphasized that “its goal is the peaceful and orderly handover of military bases.”

Saudi sources confirmed that “this operation will not stop until the Southern Transitional Council withdraws from the two provinces.” This is even though Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two wealthy Persian Gulf powers, were the backbone of the military coalition against Yemen’s Ansar Allah, the forces that drove the government from Sanaa in 2014 and took control of Yemen’s most populous regions.

Now, after a bloody 10-year civil war, Ansar Allah forces remain in power, and the Saudis and Emiratis now support different factions in government-held areas.

The Southern Transitional Council’s foreign affairs representative, Amr al-Bayd, accused Riyadh of “knowingly deceiving the international community by declaring a ‘peaceful operation’ that had no intention of preserving peace.”

“This was revealed in reality because they carried out seven airstrikes just a few minutes later,” the Southern Transitional Council’s foreign affairs representative wrote on X. This comes despite Saudi Arabia repeatedly calling on the Southern Transitional Council to withdraw from the newly captured areas.

But the developments on the ground in Yemen did not end there, and after the Saudi-led coalition bombed an alleged Emirati arms shipment on Tuesday, the UAE Ministry of Defense announced that it would withdraw its remaining forces from Yemen.

On the other hand, it is important to note that the Yemeni government is comprised of a disparate coalition of groups, including the Southern Transitional Council, which is united only in its opposition to Ansar Allah forces. The Southern Transitional Council’s advance has increased the likelihood of a declaration of independence for southern Yemen, which was a separate country between 1967 and 1990, and has dealt a heavy blow to the slow and fragile peace talks with Yemen’s Ansar Allah.

Also on Friday, Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber said that the Southern Transitional Council had prevented the Saudi delegation from landing at Aden airport, accusing the group of “stubbornness.” Also on Thursday, the Ministry of Transport, controlled by the Southern Transitional Council in Yemen, condemned Saudi Arabia’s demand that all flights to and from the UAE must stop in Saudi Arabia for security checks.

Finally, no flights have taken off or landed at Aden airport for more than 24 hours, according to data from flight tracking website Flightradar24, although the ministry has not officially announced the closure of the airport.