Saudi-backed factions head to Hadramout after being withdrew from southern provinces

ADEN, Dec. 08 (YPA) – Saudi Arabia has issued directives for Dera al-Watan factions to leave the city of Aden and the rest of the areas in Mahra, Lahj, Abyan, south of Yemen, and heading to the oil-rich province of Hadramout.

Sources familiar with the matter said the military brigades of Saudi-backed Dera al-Watan factions left Mahra towards Al-Abr crossing in Hadramout, after the pro-UAE factions took control of all camps and points on the main roads between the districts, which has been created since the entry of the province of Mahra last February.

On the other hand, these factions left also the coastal area of Ras al-Ara overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait west of Lahj province and from Al-Sha’ab camp of Aden city, heading to Seiyun-Abr of Hadramout. This came with the withdrawal of one of the Dera al-Watan’s brigades from the positions of Akad mountain in Lawder district of Abyan province towards Hadramout.

Those movements and military withdrawals came amid news that the leadership of the UAE forces granted the Saudi-backed Dera al-Watan factions a 24-hour deadline to leave those areas.

This coincided with the Saudi-led coalition closing the Al-Abr route linking the provinces of Hadramout, Shabwa and Marib, leading to the obstruction of the movement of Yemeni travelers towards the border crossing of Al-Wadiah between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, in addition to the closure of the Shahan land crossing, is one of two border crossings between Yemen’s Mahra and the Sultanate of Oman, due to clashes and armed tensions since the last week.

Local observers believe that the mass withdrawal of the Saudi-funded armed factions, which were establish by a decision of the chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi, early 2023, came within the preparation of the stage in the southern and eastern provinces of Yemen for the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the context of imposing a divisive reality on the areas of Yemen under the control of the Saudi-led coalition, according to the American-Zionist project, especially with the Israeli praise for the military gains that the STC factions achieved in oil-rich Hadramout, which one of the Israeli experts described last Saturday as a brilliant operation created by the UAE with a strategy of pincers with “Israel”.

AA