Saudi forces transport UAE-backed STC’s head to Riyadh

ADEN, May 22 (YPA) – Saudi forces transported the so-called head of the “UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, and his deputy, Faraj Al-Bahsani, in the city of Mukalla, the center of Hadramout, to Riyadh.

Political sources indicated that Saudi Arabia prevented Al-Zubaidi and Al-Bahsani to take part in the meetings of the STC’s National Assembly held in Mukalla, two days after the arrival of the heads of the Hadrami components on a Saudi plane, accompanied by the coalition-backed governor, Mabkhout bin Madhi.

Saudi Arabia’s summoning of al-Zoubaidi and al-Bahsani came amid the Hadrami components’ rejection of the UAE military reinforcements to Mukalla last week, under the pretext of securing the meetings of STC.

Mukalla’s meeting was held after the Hadhrami components refused to participate in the consultative meeting that was held by the STC on the fourth of May, and its decisions that resulted in appointing two members of the “Leadership Council” Faraj al-Bahsani and Abdul Rahman al-Mahrami as vice-presidents of the STC, in a move that political and military observers considered a painful Emirati blow to the Saudi project in the southern provinces.

AA