UAE says it pulled troops out of Yemen
Yemen’s separatist movement on Friday announced a constitution for an independent nation in the south and demanded other factions in the war-torn country accept the move in an escalation of a confrontation that has pitted Gulf powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against each other.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council depicted the announcement as a declaration of independence for the south. But it was not immediately clear if the move could be implemented or was largely symbolic. Last month, STC-linked fighters seized control of two southern provinces from Saudi-backed forces and took over the Presidential Palace in the south’s main city, Aden.
Members of the internationally recognised Government — which had been based in Aden — fled to the Saudi-capital Riyadh. On Friday, Saudi warplanes bombed camps and military positions held by the STC in Hadramout province as Saudi-backed fighters tried to seize the facilities, a separatist official said. It was the latest direct intervention by Saudi Arabia, which in recent weeks has bombed STC forces and struck what is said to be a shipment of Emirati weapons destined for the separatists.
Meanwhile, the UAE announced early Saturday it had completely withdrawn all its troops from Yemen, something it pledged to do after the confrontation. Ostensibly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and their allies on the ground in Yemen have all been part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control the north in the country’s decade-long civil war.
The coalition’s professed goal has long been to restore the internationally recognised Government, which was driven out of the north by the Houthis. But tensions between the factions and the two Gulf nations appear to be unravelling the coalition, threatening to throw them into outright conflict and further tear apart the Arab world’s poorest country.
Southern separatists’ declaration
The head of the STC, Aidarous al-Zubaid, issued a video statement Friday saying that the constitution his group issued would be in effect for two years, after which a referendum would be held on “exercising the right to self-determination for the people of the South.” During those two years, he said, the “relevant parties” in north and south Yemen should hold a dialogue on “a path and mechanisms that guarantee the right of the people of the South.”
He said that if the other factions don’t agree to his call or if they take military action, “all options remain open.” The 30-article “constitution” proclaimed the creation of “the State of South Arabia,” covering the same territory of the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, the independent southern state that existed from 1967 to 1990.
It seemed to be the most overt move yet by the STC toward its long-proclaimed goal of independence. In the confusion that has reigned in the south in recent weeks, it was not clear what practical impact it would have. But the declaration could set back efforts to avert an outright conflict between the separatists and the rest of the Saudi-led coalition.
