Riyadh urges dialogue between Yemeni factions amid clashes
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A video grab showing smoke rising from a strike on Southern Transitional Council forces in Seiyun, in Yemen's Hadhramaut Governorate, on Jan 2.
PHOTO: AFP
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MUKALLA, Yemen – Saudi Arabia on Jan 3 called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen amid clashes in resource-rich Hadramawt province, where the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) seized vast swathes of territory in recent weeks.
In a statement posted on social media, the Saudi Foreign Ministry called for “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.
Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.
The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractured government territories. But the STC’s latest offensive angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich Gulf powers at loggerheads.
Following repeated warnings and air strikes on an alleged UAE weapons shipment this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of attacks on Jan 2, including air strikes on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt that left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.
According to an AFP journalist, gunfire rocked the Yemeni city of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, on the morning of Jan 3.
Residents in the province’s city of Seiyun, where coalition strikes on Jan 2 targeted the airport and a military base, also said they heard gunfire and clashes early on Jan 3.
The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.
On Jan 2, the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state, and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.
The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north.
But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south. AFP
