ADEN: The Arab coalition intervened in Aden on Sunday in support of the Yemeni government after southern separatists effectively took over the port city.
In a sign of support for Yemen’s president, King Salman met Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Sunday in Mina, on the sidelines of the Hajj pilgrimage, the Saudi Press Agency reported. The meeting “discussed efforts to achieve security and stability” in Yemen, it said.
The infighting, which broke out on Aug. 8 to control the port city, which serves as temporary seat of Yemen’s internationally-recognized government, has killed 40 people and injured 260, the UN said.
“It is heart-breaking that during Eid Al-Adha, families are mourning the death of their loved ones instead of celebrating together in peace,” said Lise Grande, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen.
“Our main concern right now is to dispatch medical teams to rescue the injured,” she said in a statement on Sunday. “We are also very worried by reports that civilians trapped in their homes are running out of food and water.”
The Arab coalition said it attacked an area that posed a “direct threat” to the government of President Hadi.
A local official told Reuters the coalition had targeted separatist forces surrounding the nearly empty presidential palace in the Crater district.
“This is only the first operation and will be followed by others ... the Southern Transitional Council (STC) still has a chance to withdraw,” Saudi state TV quoted it as saying.
Several hours after the coalition announcement, there was no indication that STC forces were preparing to leave government military camps they seized on Saturday.
The Aden clashes began on Wednesday after the separatists accused a party allied to Hadi of complicity in a missile attack on a southern forces military parade in Aden.
STC Vice President Hani Ali Brik, writing on Twitter to mark Eid Al-Adha, that began on Sunday, said while the Council remained committed to the coalition it would “not negotiate under duress.” It had earlier agreed to a truce.
The UAE-backed separatists, who want to split with the north, have a rival agenda to Hadi’s government over the future of Yemen, but have been a key part of the coalition that intervened in the Arabian Peninsula nation in 2015 against the Houthis after the group ousted Hadi from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014.
The violence in the port city that handles some commercial imports and aid complicates UN efforts to end the war that has killed tens of thousands and pushed the country to the brink of famine. Residents said clashes ceased on Saturday night. Coalition member the UAE, which has armed and trained thousands of southern separatists, urged calm. Riyadh said it would host an emergency meeting aimed at restoring order. Hadi’s government has asked Abu Dhabi to stop backing southern forces.
SETBACK FOR COALITION
The infighting is a serious setback for the coalition in its more than four-year campaign to break the grip of the Houthis, who control Sanaa and most urban centers.
Analysts said Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, Sunni Muslim allies united against Shiite Iran, would work together to contain the crisis even though the UAE in June scaled down its military presence in Yemen as Western pressure mounted to end the war.
“The UAE and Saudi Arabia have allied with distinct Yemeni partners ... Yet to this point in the conflict, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh have worked to maintain a relative detente between competing interests in the south,” Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst at International Crisis Group, told Reuters.
“That is the approach again today,” she said, but added there was concern that the situation could deteriorate into “a civil war within a civil war.”
The war has revived old strains between north and south Yemen, formerly separate countries that united into a single state in 1990 under slain former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Houthis’ deputy foreign minister on Saturday said the Aden events proved Hadi’s government was unfit to rule and called for dialogue with other main powers in Yemen to establish a federation under a “unified national framework.”
The United Nations is trying to salvage a stalled peace deal in the main port city of Hodeidah, north of Aden, to pave the way for peace talks at a time of heightened tensions after the Houthis stepped up missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities.
The Yemen conflict is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Houthis deny being puppets of Iran and say their revolt is against corruption.
