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Arabia

United Arab Emirates-backed separatists tighten grip on southern Yemen

2025-12-09

[IsraelTimes] Airspace briefly closed in what Yemeni official says was ‘Saudi message’ to Southern Transitional Council, whose UAE-supported fighters took over large oil-rich region

The airspace of war-torn Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of...
was briefly closed Monday, an official said, as tensions escalated in the country’s south after a separatist group, backed by the United Arab Emirates, took over an oil-rich region in a rift that could fracture the anti-Iran's Houthi sock puppets
...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him...
alliance.

A Yemeni government official said that the Saudi-led coalition didn’t issue required permissions for flights to or from Yemen, briefly halting flights to and from the southern city of Aden — the seat of the internationally recognized government.

The official described the move as a "Saudi message" to the separatist Southern Transitional Council, following its latest takeover of areas across southern Yemen, including much of the sprawling oil-rich province of Hadhramaut, which borders Saudi Arabia

...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
. The escalation could lead to Yemen being split into two states after more than three decades of unification.

The move was later reversed, allowing flight operations in Aden airport, where hundreds of passengers were stranded for hours, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief the media.

An News Agency that Dare Not be Named journalist at the airport said that workers have begun processing passengers of a Cairo-bound flight that was supposed to take off early Monday.

Since the entry of a Saudi-led coalition into Yemen’s war in 2015, the coalition has controlled the country’s airspace. Saudi Arabia didn’t acknowledge closing Yemen’s airspace on Monday.

UAE-BACKED COUNCIL EXPANDS CONTROL
The Southern Transitional Council, or STC — an umbrella of gangs trained and financed by the UAE — has expanded its control over Yemen’s south earlier this month. They seized control of Seiyun in Hadhramaut, including crucial oil fields and energy installations following brief festivities with the Yemeni military, and allied tribes.

Forces of the secessionist group were deployed across the strategic Wadi Hadramout
...the formerly independent Qu'aiti state and sultanate, annexed by Communist South Yemen in 1968, encompassing a region along the Gulf of Aden, extending eastwards to the borders of the Dhofar region of Oman. The people are called Hadhramis and speak Hadhrami Arabic. The city Tarimis is estimated to contain the highest concentration of descendants of the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI) anywhere in the world, approximately seven in every square yard...
area, which includes major urban centers and military bases, according to STC-allied media. They took over the presidential palace and the international airport in Seiyun last week, and advanced to the province of Mahra, which borders Oman, the group said.

STC hoisted the flag of South Yemen over government buildings across the country’s south including on the border crossing with Oman. Images circulated on STC-allied media showed the South Yemen flag, with its light blue chevron and a red star, flying over government buildings and schools in the south.

The separatists enjoy loyalty through much of southern Yemen and have repeatedly pushed to break up Yemen into two countries, as it was between 1967 and 1990.

Hundreds of STC supporters erupted into the streets in Aden to call for the establishment of an independent state in the south. The demonstrators raised the flag of South Yemen, and pictures of Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the STC leader, who is also vice president of the country. There were also protests in Hadramout.

"It’s the summit day, the day of great triumph ... when we liberated all regions of the south," said Mohammed al-Zaher, a Yemeni resident while flying the flag of South Yemen, which was known as the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.

They vowed to stay in the streets until the declaration of the south’s independence, and on Monday, a group of demonstrators were seen setting up a protest camp in the district of Khor Maksar.

STC forces seized the presidential palace in Aden over the weekend, forcing presidential guards to vacate the facility, according to the government official.

The STC sought to portray its military advances as necessary to restore stability in the region, and to fight the Iran-backed Houthis, al-Qaeda and the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group. It said that Hadhramaut Valley has turned into a "platform for smuggling operations" for the Houthis and "hotbeds" for al-Qaeda and IS hard boys, and that its operations there came after "the exhaustion of all options proposed in recent years to restore stability."

The chairman of the ruling Presidential Council, Rashad al-Alimi, meanwhile, on Sunday called for the Emirati-backed forces to withdraw from areas they recently seized in Hadhramaut and Mahra.

"We categorically reject any unilateral measures that would undermine the legal status of the state, harm the public interest, or create a parallel reality," he said in a statement following his meeting with diplomats from the United States, United Kingdom and La Belle France, in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh.

’MAJOR SHIFT’
The STC’s latest escalation was a "major shift," which will have regional repercussions, with the UAE appearing to be "the main winner," through expanding its influence in Yemen, said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.

"This changes the balance of power in Yemen," he said. "The key question now is how Saudi Arabia will respond, given the direct implications for its national security."

The UAE’s support for the secessionists has threatened the Saudi-led coalition fighting against the Houthis for more than a decade. The UAE is part of the coalition.

Yemen’s war began in 2014, when the Houthis swept down from their northern stronghold and seized the capital, Sanaa, along with much of the country’s north. In response, the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government to power.

Posted by:trailing wife

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