Yemen Monitor / Aden / Exclusive:
The UAE backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has sent indirect messages of reassurance to the Houthi armed group, affirming that it has no intention of participating in any anticipated government military operations against the group, as political and military tensions continue to escalate in Yemen.
The STC’s official television channel published a statement saying: “The Southern Armed Forces Command categorically denies issuing any statement regarding participation in any military operations against the Houthi militia.”
This swift military disavowal by the STC came only hours after a high-level meeting of the “Supreme National Defense Council,” chaired by Presidential Leadership Council Chairman Rashad Al-Alimi.
Abdullah Al-Alimi, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, told The Guardian that after the STC failed to establish its own state, there is now, for the first time, a greater degree of cohesion within the Presidential Leadership Council, Yemen’s executive authority. He added that many former members of the dissolved STC continue to hold positions throughout the state’s institutions, from the Presidential Leadership Council to the government, governorates, and various other institutions.
Leaders loyal to the STC’s leadership based in Abu Dhabi continue to control front-line positions in the governorates of Al-Dhalea and Lahj, close to the front lines with the Houthis. The STC has previously accused Yemen’s Ministry of Defense of working to dismantle its forces, while Presidential Leadership Council member Abdulrahman Al-Muharrami is seeking to inherit Aidarous Al-Zubaidi’s influence and assume command of those forces.
The STC has also intensified its rhetoric against Saudi Arabia. Last week, it announced the launch of what it called a “revolutionary escalation” to confront what it described as the “Saudi and Yemeni occupation.”
A media official working with the STC told Yemen Monitor that if fighting were to break out, “it does not concern the South or the Southern Transitional Council, since both Saudi Arabia and the Houthis are our enemies.”
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The sudden military escalation in Yemen has shattered a fragile, unofficial truce that had lasted four years, threatening to expand the ongoing geopolitical conflict into the Red Sea and disrupt one of the world’s most important energy corridors.
Days after the rhetoric intensified, the internationally recognized Yemeni government bombed the runway of Sana’a International Airport on Monday to prevent an Iranian aircraft from landing. In response, the Houthis launched ballistic missiles toward southern Saudi Arabia, accusing Riyadh of being behind the airport attack and declaring an end to the period of de-escalation with the Kingdom and the collapse of the truce.
