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Graphic shows key players in the Saudi-led coalition.
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POLITICS

Splits in Yemen’s anti-Houthi alliance

By Duncan Mil

August 19, 2019 - Clashes between Saudi Arabian-backed forces of the exiled government of Yemen and the United Arab Emirates-supported Southern Transitional Council (STC) threaten to fracture the Saudi-UAE coalition.

Although the UAE and Saudi Arabia share the same overarching goal of battling the Iranian-backed Shia Muslim Houthis, they have their own, often competing, agendas.

Houthi rebels ousted President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi from power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014. His government relocated to the port city of Aden.

Since 2015, Emirati forces have stopped Houthi rebels from occupying the south and prevented Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) from setting up a caliphate.

But these successes did not earn the UAE an equal place at the head of the coalition. Due to the power imbalance between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, the Saudis were always in charge.

On August 11, Saudi Arabia bombed STC separatists, who had seized Aden from Yemen’s Riyadh-backed, internationally recognised government a day earlier.

The STC move came amid fears that Islamist forces in the Saudi-led coalition could take over the south, permitting AQAP to make a comeback.

The STC has also accused the Islamist Islah party -- a backbone of Hadi’s government -- of seeking a unified Yemeni state with the Houthis. The STC wants a more secular southern Yemeni state.

The UAE regards Islah as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Abu Dhabi has banned. Riyadh tolerates Islah because it helps to prop up Hadi.

In early July the UAE announced it would begin a phased military withdrawal from Yemen. Abu Dhabi deployed around 3,500 troops in Yemen, with nearly 3,000 additional UAE airmen, sailors and soldiers operating in direct support offshore and in neighbouring regions.

Sources
PUBLISHED: 19/08/2019; STORY: Graphic News; PICTURES: Getty Images
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