Yemen minister: dialogue with 'Abu Dhabi militias' will only be through weapons

On Monday the Yemeni Minister of Transport, Saleh Al-Gibwani, declared that “dialogue with the UAE militias will only be through weapons,” referring to the secessionist forces of the “Southern Transitional Council”.

Al-Gibwani communicated this message through a Tweet he published on Twitter when the governorate of Shabwa (south) is being subjected to the attacks of UAE-backed separatists, targeting the legitimate institutions of the Yemeni government.

Yemeni officials accuse the UAE, a member of the pro-government Arab coalition, of supporting what they described as a “coup attempt” by the forces of the Southern Transitional Council in the southern governorates, mainly Aden, Abyan, and Shabwa.

“Shabwah teaches the militias and their supporters a new lesson again, showing them that it could only be a purely Yemeni governorate. Its men will be only the affiliates of the Yemeni legitimacy led by President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi,” said the minister.

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He also declared that “Shabwah is sending a message to our brothers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that dialogue with the militias of Abu Dhabi will be carried on only through weapons.”

“Learn from Shabwah so that you may succeed,” the minister stressed.

Earlier on Monday, government forces thwarted the Southern Council’s attempt to control the city of Azzan, the second-largest city in Shabwa governorate.

Saudi Arabia previously called the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council to hold a dialogue in Jeddah to resolve the situation in southern Yemen.

The Yemeni government requires the withdrawal of the forces of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council forces from all government facilities in the south of the country, before engaging into any dialogue.

Backed by an Emirati airstrike targeting Yemeni army positions, separatists took control over Aden and Abyan last Thursday, causing the death of about 300 people and wounding others, according to a statement issued by the Yemeni Ministry of Defence.

On Thursday, the UAE acknowledged waging the raids but justified it as targeting “armed terrorist groups” in response to an attack waged by coalition forces at the airport in Aden.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni government said on Friday that it “rejects the fake justifications the UAE has provided in order to cover up it’s blatant targeting of the National Army Forces,” and considered the UAE’s attempt to frame Yemeni forces for terrorism as a miserable pretext to cover up their blatant and illegal targeting of Yemen.

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