DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Saudi Arabia on Thursday formally called on Emirati-backed separatists in Yemen to withdraw from two governorates their forces now control in the country, a move that threatens sparking a confrontation within a fragile coalition battling the Houthi rebels.
The statement from Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry on Christmas morning appeared aimed at putting public pressure on the Southern Transitional Council, a force long backed by the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has backed other fighters within Yemen, including the National Shield Forces, in the war against the Iranian-backed Houthis the kingdom launched in 2015.
The separatists' actions have "resulted in an unjustified escalation that harmed the interests of all segments of Yemeni people, as well as the southern cause and the coalition’s efforts,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry warned.
It added: “The kingdom stresses the importance of cooperation among all Yemeni factions and components to exercise restraint and avoid any measures that could destabilize security and stability, which may result in undesirable consequences.”
Saudi Arabia says negotiations ongoing
The Council has moved into Yemen's governorates of Hadramout and Mahra. The Saudi statement said meditation efforts were aimed at having the Council's forces return to "their previous positions outside of the two governorates and hand over the camps in those areas" to the National Shield Forces.
“These efforts remain in progress to restore the situation to its previous statement,” the ministry added.
Those aligned with the Council have increasingly flown the flag of the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967 to 1990. There were calls for demonstrations Thursday in Aden to support political forces wanting South Yemen to again secede from Yemen, but it wasn't immediately clear if they would go ahead given Saudi Arabia's announcement. Aden has been the seat of power in Yemen for forces aligned against the Houthis.
The confrontation also has put pressure on the relationship between neighboring Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which maintain close relations and are members of the OPEC oil cartel but also have vied for influence and international business in recent years.
The Council's moves in Yemen follow an escalation of violence in Sudan, another nation on the Red Sea where the kingdom and the Emirates back opposing forces in an ongoing war.
It's the latest chaos to grip war-torn Yemen
The Houthis seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. Tehran denies arming the rebels, although Iranian-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen despite a United Nations arms embargo.
A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemen’s exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting have pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more.
The Houthis launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war, greatly disrupting regional shipping.
While traffic has inched up recently in the lull in attacks, many shippers continue to go around Africa via the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Further chaos in Yemen could again draw in the United States. The U.S. launched an intense bombing campaign targeting the rebels earlier this year that President Donald Trump halted just before his trip to the Mideast. The Biden administration also conducted strikes against the Houthis, including using America's B-2 bombers to target what it described as underground bunkers used by the Houthis.
The Houthis meanwhile announced plans for a funeral Thursday for several of its fighters, including Maj. Gen. Zakaria Abdullah Yahya Hajar, whom analysts identified as the group's drone and missile chief. U.S. forces reportedly targeted Hajar, who allegedly received training from the expeditionary Quds Force of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, in a strike in March in Sanaa. The Houthis provided no information on how or when he died in the funeral announcement.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have increasingly threatened Saudi Arabia and taken dozens of workers at U.N. agencies and other aid groups as prisoners, alleging without evidence that they were spies — something fiercely denied by the U.N. and others.