Commander of US forces in Hadramout summons pro-coalition Governor Mabkhout Bin Madi

HADRAMOUT, Oct. 04 (YPA) – The commander of the US forces in Hadramout, Michael Koenig, on Tuesday, held an urgent meeting with the governor Mabkhout bin Madi loyal to the Saudi-led coalition, in conjunction with developments plaguing the oil-rich province amid an escalation of the UAE-Saudi conflict.

According to sources in Governor Bin Madi’s office, the commander of US Marines Crops stationed in Mukalla and Shihr, summoned Governor Ben Madi for an emergency meeting to assess what they described as the latest campaign to impose security and combat terrorism.

The governor’s office published a statement, stating that the meeting was   held with an official of the United States Civil Affairs Office. The official name is “Koenig”, since his inauguration as ruler of Hadramawt since the deployment of his forces in Mukalla. They discussed stability in the province.

The meeting comes on the basis of a campaign of night raids launched by the UAR-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC)’s factions in the neighborhoods of Mukalla, which targeted journalists and activists.

It is still unclear whether the meeting was aimed at calming rising proxy tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates or overseeing a campaign that has brought to mind images of the  US Marines  storming homes in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Koenig’s talk of counterterrorism suggests  that he has tried to justify and legitimize the campaign.

The United States is pushing the UAE to clash with Saudi Arabia, especially in the oil and gas areas of eastern Yemen, in order to shuffle the cards of Riyadh, which seeks to unilaterally acquire that province.

E.M