UAE-backed council to mark its independence

The Southern Transitional Council (STC) reported yesterday that it will be holding a National Assembly tomorrow in Aden to mark its independence as a state.

A legal bill will pass tomorrow forming an independent southern state which will engrave the United Arab Emirates’ influence in southern Yemen.

General Aidarous Al Zubaidi, president of the STC, visited troops in Khokha which was recently recaptured from the Houthi group near the Hudaydah governorate. UAE-backed forces supported military operations in taking over Khokha.

The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition which was invited by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in March 2015 to neutralise territorial threats by the Iranian-backed Houthi group. Since 2017, the UAE has shifted political objectives and supported the STC which seeks to secede from northern Yemen in contrast to the coalition’s original goals. Saudi Arabia has not commented on the UAE’s foreign policy in south Yemen.

The STC passed a resolution today to form a local headquarters in Al Mahra governorate in eastern Yemen bordering Oman. Back in November, the Saudi-led coalition had an altercation with Al-Mahrah governorate security forces, when it prevented Saudi forces from taking control of the town’s airport in Al-Ghaydah.

Read: Over 11,000 Houthis killed in 3 months, Saudi official