Yemen announces emergency rule amid escalating separatist clashes
Yemen declares emergency, cancels UAE security pact amid separatist advances, escalating tensions with Saudi-led coalition and threatening fragile peace talks.
Yemen – Yemen’s presidential council leader declared a 90-day state of emergency on Tuesday and terminated a security agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after separatists captured significant territory.
“The joint defense pact with the UAE is officially revoked,” the statement read, while a separate decree imposed a 72-hour blockade on air, land, and sea routes.
These measures come as Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, responded to reports that the Saudi-led coalition targeted a UAE weapons shipment intended for the separatists.
BREAKING: Saudi-led coalition in Yemen declares emergency, imposes air and land blockade, demands Emirati troops withdraw immediately following Saudi strikes in Mukalla. – factal news
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Yemen’s presidential council declares a 90-day state of emergency following separatist territorial gains.
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Security agreement with the UAE officially terminated amid rising tensions.
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72-hour blockade imposed on air, sea, and land routes.
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Southern Transitional Council (STC) captured Hadramawt and parts of Mahrah provinces.
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Rashad al-Alimi calls STC’s advances an “unacceptable rebellion”, ordering territory returned to Saudi-backed forces.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces have swept through the south of Yemen this month, taking most of resource-rich Hadramawt province and swathes of neighbouring Mahrah.
Alimi ordered the SCT to hand over the territory to Saudi-backed forces, calling the separatists’ advance an “unacceptable rebellion” in a televised address.
The confrontation risks tearing apart the already fractured Yemeni government.
It also threatens slow-moving peace negotiations with the Houthis, who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014, triggering a military intervention by the Saudi-led coalition.
Saudi Arabia says its national security is a ‘red line’ after strike in Yemen
Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday its national security was a red line it would defend, hours after a Saudi-led coalition struck what it described as foreign military support to southern separatists at Yemen’s Mukalla port.
The Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement it hoped the UAE will take the necessary steps to preserve bilateral relations.
It also expressed “disappointment” over the actions taken by “brotherly UAE pressuring the STC’s forces to conduct military operations on the southern borders of the kingdom in the governorates of Hadramout and Al-Mahara, which is considered a threat to the kingdom’s national security, and the security and stability of the Republic of Yemen and the region“.
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“The steps taken by the UAE are considered highly dangerous, inconsistent with the principles upon which the coalition to restore legitimacy in Yemen was established, and do not serve the coalition’s purpose of achieving security and stability for Yemen,” it said.
“In this context, the kingdom stresses that any threat to its national security is a red line, and the kingdom will not hesitate to take all necessary steps and measures to confront and neutralise any such threat,” it said.
“The kingdom also hopes that the brotherly UAE will take the necessary steps to preserve bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries, which the kingdom is keen on strengthening, and continue joint efforts towards all that leads to the well-being, prosperity and stability of countries in the region,” it added.
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