UAE-Saudi agreement stipulates exclusion of Islah Party from Shabwa

HADRAMOUT, May 30 (YPA) – The UAE and Saudi Arabia reached on Tuesday an agreement regarding the Islah Party’s situation in Hadramout province.

Abu Dhabi-funded Al-Arab newspaper confirmed, quoting informed sources, that the agreement stipulates the exclusion of the Party from the new map of the oil-rich province, noting that Saudi Arabia has already issued a decision to remove the forces of the Islah-run First Military Region in Shabwa.

A military expert in the Saudi army, Brigadier General Nawaf Al-Ghamdi, said on Twitter that his country’s decision to dismantle the Region’s force by distributing its units to the battle fronts in Marib and Bayda.

Some sources pointed out that Saudi Arabia rejected Islah’s efforts to legitimize its dominance over the districts of Valley and Desert of Hadramout under the cover of negotiations of Hadramout’s sons.

The exclusion of Islah from Hadramout would reflect an Emirati-Saudi agreement whose features have begun to take shape recently with Saudi Arabia’s offer to support Abu Dhabi’s plan to achieve the separation of southern Yemen according to a vision of sharing between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, in a way that guarantees Saudi control of the oil crescent known as the “Hadramout region”, provided that the UAE would remain in control of Aden to take advantage of stopping the work of the port of Aden and the free zone.

AA