Split among Houthi opponents as UAE-backed separatists take control of southern Yemen

The United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council said it had established control over vast areas of southern Yemen, including several oil fields near the border with Saudi Arabia.

These territories were under the control of the internationally recognized government of Yemen, backed by Saudi Arabia. The government and the Southern Transitional Council are jointly fighting the Houthis, part of the international terrorist axis created by Iran.

According to senior council official Amr al-Bidha, the group controls all of southern Yemen, including Aden, the country’s temporary capital. Recall that Sanaa is held by the Houthis. He also said that the internationally recognized government had left Yemen.

This marks a strategic defeat for Saudi Arabia, which led a foreign intervention in 2015 to prevent the entire country from falling under Houthi rule. In essence, we are talking about the disintegration of Yemen into two separate territorial units. From 1967 to 1990, South Yemen was a separate state.