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...bombed 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...
’s port city of Mukalla on Tuesday, targeting a shipment of weapons from the United Arab Emirates for separatist forces — a significant move in a country located along a key international trade route that threatens to bring new risks to the Persian Gulf region.
The secessionist Southern Transitional Council, STC, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates, this month seized most of the provinces of 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...
and Mahra this month, including oil facilities.
Yemen has been mired for more than a decade in a civil war that involves a complex interplay of sectarian grievances and the involvement of regional powers.
The Iran-aligned 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 JewsThey 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...
s control the most populous regions of the country, including the capital Sanaa. Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Jane reached into her purse for her .38...
a loose regional coalition of powers — including Saudi Arabia and the UAE — has backed the internationally recognized government in the south.
The war has created a humanitarian crisis and shattered the economy. Still, since 2022, violence had gradually declined as the sides reached something of a stalemate in the war.
The move by the UAE-backed separatists upends the political arrangement among the anti-Houthi partners.
THE ORIGINS OF THE CRISIS
The war in Yemen began in 2014, when the Houthis marched from their northern stronghold of Saada. They took the capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. Saudi Arabia and the UAE entered the war the following year in an attempt to restore the government.
The new fighting pits the STC against the forces of the internationally recognized government and its allied tribes, even as they are both members of the camp fighting against the Houthi rebels in the country’s broader civil war.
The STC is the most powerful group in southern Yemen, with crucial financial and military support from the UAE. It was established in April 2017 as an umbrella organization for groups that seek to restore South Yemen as an independent state, as it was between 1967 and 1990.
The latest moves reinforced the STC positions across southern Yemen, which could give them leverage in any future talks to settle the Yemen conflict. The STC has long demanded that any settlement should give southern Yemen the right of self-determination.
The STC enjoys loyalty throughout much of southern Yemen. It is chaired by Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who is also vice president of the country’s Presidential Leadership Council, the ruling organ of the internationally recognized government.
The STC and other UAE-supported groups now control most of the southern half of Yemen, including crucial port cities and islands.
The other party in the latest fighting includes the Yemeni military, which reports to the internationally recognized government. They are allied with the Hadramout Tribal Alliance, a local tribal coalition supported by Saudi Arabia.
These forces are centered in Yemen’s largest province of Hadramout, which stretches from the Gulf of Aden in the south to the border with Saudi Arabia in the north. The oil-rich province is a major source of fuel for the southern areas of Yemen.
SECESSIONISTS ADVANCE THIS MONTH
Earlier this month, STC forces marched to Hadramout and took control of the province’s major facilities, including PetroMasila, Yemen’s largest oil company, after brief festivities with government forces and their tribal allies.
This took place after the Saudi-backed Hadramout Tribal Alliance seized the PetroMasila oil facility in late November to pressure the government to agree to its demands for a bigger share of oil revenues and the improvement of services for Hadramout’s residents.
The STC apparently seized on this move as a pretext for wrestling control of Hadramout and its oil facilities for itself and expanding areas under its control in Yemen.
STC forces then marched to the province of Mahra on the borders with Oman and took control of a border crossing between the two countries. In Aden, the UAE-backed force also seized the presidential palace, which serves as the seat of the ruling Presidential Council.
Saudi troops also withdrew earlier this month from bases in Aden, a Yemeni government official said. The withdrawal was part of a Saudi "repositioning strategy," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.
On Friday, Saudi Arabia targeted the Hadramout region in
...
KABOOM!...
s that analysts described as a warning for the separatists to halt their advance and leave the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra.
A FRAGILE SITUATION HAS BEEN SHATTERED
The escalation shattered the relative quiet in Yemen’s war, which has been stalemated in recent years after the Houthis reached a deal with Saudi Arabia that stopped their attacks on the kingdom in return for ceasing the Saudi-led strikes on their territories.
The escalation highlights strained ties between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which had been backing competing sides in Yemen’s decade-long war against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels amid a moment of unease across the wider Red Sea region. The two nations, while closely aligned on many issues in the wider Middle East, increasingly have competed with each other over economic issues and the region’s politics.
The United Arab Emirates said earlier this month that Yemen’s governance and territorial integrity are "an issue that must be determined by the Yemeni parties themselves."