Yemen’s separatists announce constitution, UAE withdraws all its troops

Yemen’s separatist movement on Friday announced a constitution for an independent nation in the south and demanded other factions in the war-torn country accept the move in an escalation of a confrontation that has pitted Gulf powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against each other.

The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council depicted the announcement as a declaration of independence for the south. But it was not immediately clear if the move could be implemented or was largely symbolic. Last month, STC-linked fighters seized control of two southern provinces from Saudi-backed forces and took over the presidential palace in the south’s main city, Aden. Members of the internationally recognised government, which had been based in Aden, fled to the Saudi capital Riyadh.

On Friday, Saudi warplanes bombed camps and military positions held by the STC in Hadramout province as Saudi-backed fighters tried to seize the facilities, a separatist official said. It was the latest direct intervention by Saudi Arabia, which in recent weeks has bombed STC forces and struck what is said was a shipment of Emirati weapons destined for the separatists.

Meanwhile, the UAE announced on Saturday it had completely withdrawn all its troops from Yemen, something it pledged to do after the confrontation.

Ostensibly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and their allies on the ground in Yemen have all been part of a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control the north in the country’s decade-long civil war. The coalition’s professed goal has long been to restore the internationally recognised government, which was driven out of the north by the Houthis. But tensions between the factions and the two Gulf nations appear to be unravelling the coalition, threatening to throw them into outright conflict and further tear apart the Arab world’s poorest country.

The head of the STC, Aidarous al-Zubaid, issued a video statement on Friday saying that the constitution his group issued would be in effect for two years, after which a referendum would be held on “exercising the right to self-determination for the people of the South”. During those two years, he said, the “relevant parties” in north and south Yemen should hold a dialogue on “a path and mechanisms that guarantee the right of the people of the South”.