00:00Yemen has been at war since Iran-backed Houthi rebels ousted the government in 2014,
00:08triggering a Saudi-led military intervention, but a new internal conflict has been brewing
00:14in recent weeks. The face-off involves rival armed factions loosely grouped under the government,
00:20but separately backed by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The UAE on Tuesday 30th
00:27said it was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen, following a Saudi demand to withdraw
00:33within 24 hours, as tensions escalate over a sweeping offensive by Abu Dhabi-backed separatists
00:40who have refused to pull back. Here is what we know about the latest events threatening
00:45the already fractured government and what could happen next.
00:49This month, the Southern Transitional Council, or STC, a UAE-backed secessionist group and
01:02key government partner, seized most of resource-rich Hadramat province and swaths of neighboring
01:09Mara. Saudi Arabia, chief supporter of Yemen's government, has hit back, and tensions escalated
01:15Tuesday when a Saudi-led military coalition attacked an alleged shipment of weapons and
01:21combat vehicles it said was sent from the UAE to the separatists. The UAE denied sending
01:27weapons to the STC. After the strikes, Yemen's Presidential Council dissolved a defense pact
01:33with the UAE and declared a 90-day state of emergency. The strikes came after raids hit STC
01:40positions on Friday, following calls from Riyadh for a separatist withdrawal.
01:45Later Tuesday, the UAE announced its remaining forces would leave Yemen, before an STC spokesman
01:52vowed the separatists would hold their positions. A Yemeni military official said around 15,000
01:58Saudi-backed fighters were massed near the Saudi border, with no orders to advance.
02:03The standoff risks upending Yemen's fragile three-and-a-half-year truce, wrote April Longley
02:09Ali, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, in an analysis. He added that it could also
02:16further strain relations between key U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
02:27Observers said that the STC appears to be launching a bid for greater self-determination
02:32over territories it controls, or even outright independence. Headed by Eideros al-Zubidi,
02:39the STC is a coalition of groups that want to bring back South Yemen, which existed from
02:451967 to 1990, when it reunified with North Yemen. They now control almost all of South
02:52Yemen's former territory. Gregory D. Johnson, a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States
02:58Institute, in a recent analysis wrote that the STC is betting that if the South can be united
03:04under a single leadership, its own, of course, it can cordon the South off from the Houthis in the
03:10North, utilize oil and gas revenue, and create a stable and functioning state. Johnson added that such
03:17a move is a tall order, and it will likely be contested both internally and externally.
03:30Hadramaut is Yemen's largest province, comprising roughly a third of the country's territory and its wealthiest.
03:36It is home to most of Yemen's vital petroleum deposits, and its ports are away from the Red Sea
03:43hotspot that regularly comes under Houthi fire. But for the Saudis, the province abutting their
03:49southern border is about more than just land and wealth. For generations, Hadramaut families have been
03:55a force in the Saudi economy and make up a sizable portion of the business community. Seen as having
04:01entrepreneurial skills and grit, migrants from Hadramaut have long flourished in Saudi Arabia,
04:07from running family restaurants to starting multi-billion-dollar construction consortiums.
04:12Losing Hadramaut to a UAE-backed militia would be a strategic blow to Riyadh.
04:24The latest escalation pits the Saudi alliance against a militia keen to exert control over territory
04:30it sees as historically distinct from the rest of Yemen. The decade-long, largely fruitless fight
04:37against the Houthis may not give Riyadh much cause for optimism. Despite spending billions in a campaign
04:43including airstrikes, the Saudi-led intervention has failed to bring the Houthis to heel. Military
04:49experts cite the south's more open terrain as playing to Saudi Arabia's possible advantage.
04:56An air campaign alone, however, is unlikely to dislodge their forces.
05:00The
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