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The United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday that it had withdrawn all its troops from Yemen following escalating tensions in the war-torn country that pitted the United Arab Emirates against Gulf power Saudi Arabia.
A statement from the UAE Ministry of Defense said the move “follows the implementation of a previously announced decision to conclude the remaining missions of the counter-terrorism units.”
He provided no details on the number of troops and equipment being moved, but several Emirati military cargo flights have taken place to and from Yemen in recent days.
Separatists demand independence from the south
Yemen’s UAE-backed separatist movement, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), announced a constitution for an independent nation in the south and demanded that the country’s other factions accept the move.
The STC presented the announcement as a declaration of independence for the south, but it was not immediately clear whether the move could be implemented or was largely symbolic.
Last month, fighters linked to the STC seized control of two southern provinces from Saudi-backed forces and took control of the presidential palace in the main southern city, Aden.
Members of the internationally recognized government – based in Aden – fled to the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
Saudi military planes bombed camps and military positions held by the STC in Hadramout province on Friday, as Saudi-backed fighters attempted to seize the facilities, a separatist official said.
It is the latest direct intervention by Saudi Arabia, which has carried out strikes against STC forces in recent weeks and hit what is believed to be a shipment of Emirati weapons intended for the separatists.
Apparently, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and their allies on the ground in Yemen have all been part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Ansar Allah rebels, commonly known as Houthis, who have controlled the north of the country during a decade-long civil war.
The coalition’s stated goal has long been to restore the internationally recognized government, driven out of the north by the Houthis.
But tensions between the factions and the two Gulf countries appear to be weakening the coalition, threatening to plunge them into full-blown conflict and further tear the Arab world’s poorest country apart.
