UAE excludes Saudi Arabia from equation of controlling Yemen’s southern coasts
SANAA, Dec. 15 (YPA) – UAE-backed factions are continuing their armed mobilization towards the city of Al-Ghaydah, the capital of Mahra Governorate, which borders Oman in eastern Yemen, for the second consecutive week.
Local sources confirmed the arrival of new military reinforcements in Al-Ghaydah on Monday through various means, including transporting militants aboard mass transit buses arriving in the early hours of dawn, laden with large numbers of fighters.
This escalation occurs amid ongoing threats by leaders of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) factions against the Saudi-aligned “Dera Al-Watan” forces, who are drawn from Mahra tribes. These threats include expulsion from the strategic Al-Ghaydah Airport on the Arabian Sea, which has served as a joint military base for Saudi, US, and British forces since late 2017.
The sources accused the STC of seeking to eliminate any Saudi military presence among the Mahra tribesmen within the “Dera Al-Watan” and of actively mobilizing fighters from the governorates of Dhalea and Lahj. This is viewed as completing the control over Yemen’s southern and eastern coasts from Aden to Mahra—a strategy described last week by the Israeli expert, Avi Avidan, as a “pincer strategy” that began in Socotra, extended through the ports of Aden and Mukalla, and reached the vast area of Hadramout.
The UAE-backed forces are taking escalatory steps in the resource-rich Mahra despite calls for de-escalation and Saudi demands for the STC factions to return to their barracks. However, statements by STC President Aidarus Al-Zubaidi regarding normalization with “Israel” reportedly exposed the “Zionist project” in Southern and Eastern Yemen.
Late last week, an agreement was reached between UAE- and Saudi-aligned leaders to hand over the western gate of Mukalla Airport, including both the external and internal entrances and their associated housing, to the pro-UAE factions. In return, the Saudi-aligned Salafist “Dera Al-Watan” factions would confine their presence to the remaining airport facilities, without addressing the installations designated for foreign forces within the airport premises.
The pro-UAE factions are also reinforcing their presence in Mahra’s coastal areas, including the district of ‘Qishn.’ In July 2022, the affailated-STC Minister of Transport in the Saudi-led coalition-aligned government, Abdulsalam Hamid, concluded a deal to lease the Qishn port to the Emirati company, “Ajiham Energy and Mining Limited,” for 50 years, extendable to 100 years, granting it the right to own the Qishn Port project on the Arabian Sea.
The port lease deal was valued at approximately $100 million for mining activities, according to officials in the pro-coalition government. The deal aims to establish a seaport at Ras Shurwayn in Qishn district under a Build-Operate system.
The project includes a multi-level marine arm, a 1000-meter breakwater, a 300-meter pier for docking ships, and a 14-meter draft in its first phase. The port will be dedicated to exporting limestone and other undisclosed minerals.
The project has faced widespread popular rejection. Saeed Afari, Head of the Political Department in the “Peaceful Sit-In Committee” opposing foreign forces in Mahra, warned early in 2023 against the deal to sell and lease the historic Qishn port and the plunder of the mineral-rich Shurwayn mount.
Afari stressed that the port project is not intended to serve the commerce and maritime navigation of the local population but is a tool to “plunder mineral wealth and transfer it abroad,” led by a group of “brokers.”
YPA