Saudi Arabia is close to reversing the situation in South and East Yemen and is preparing for a political process to address issues in Southern Yemen within a wider political settlement in the war-torn country.
Developments that started in early December by the Southern Transitional Council (STC) are now almost undone. Forces loyal to the legitimate government, backed by Saudi Arabia, have regained control of the eastern governorates of Hadramawt and Al-Mahra over the last few days.
STC forces and other militias supported by the UAE also lost the city of Aden to government forces.
In an address on Yemeni television on Saturday, head of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) Rashad Al-Alimi announced the formation of a Supreme Military Committee “tasked with overseeing and preparing all military forces for the next phase of the Yemeni conflict.”
The committee, operating under the leadership of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy led by Saudi Arabia, will be responsible for equipping, organising, and leading all military formations and readying them in case the Houthi militias reject peaceful solutions, Al-Alimi said.
He praised Saudi Arabia for its “sincere brotherly role” in supporting Yemen’s unity, legitimacy, and stability.
“The difficult decisions that were taken during the past pivotal days were not aimed at strength, but rather at protecting citizens and preserving their dignity,” Al-Alimi said, stressing the need for full commitment to the constitution, the law, and the transitional framework in Yemen.
He reiterated that the southern issue remains a top priority for the leadership, confirming his support for a comprehensive southern dialogue conference under Saudi Arabia’s sponsorship.
Following an announcement in Riyadh by the STC Secretary General that the council is disbanding, other STC figures announced from Abu Dhabi that the decision was null and void.
STC Spokesman Anwar Al-Tamimi, who is in Abu Dhabi, rejected the announcement coming out of Saudi Arabia, telling the AFP news agency that “this news is ridiculous,” adding that he remains out of contact with the southern delegation in Riyadh, indicating that a split has been emerging within the UAE-backed group.
The whereabouts of STC leader Aidarous Al-Zubaidi is not known. But the Saudi-led Coalition said that he had left the country by boat “in the dead of night” for Somaliland, before boarding an aircraft to Mogadishu that later transported him to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.
The militias affiliated with the STC and UAE are switching their loyalty to the Saudi-backed PLC, especially the “Giants Brigades” commanded by Abdulrahman Al-Mahrami.
More than five years ago when the Saudis decided to pursue a political solution in Yemen, the UAE was not happy about including figures from the Al-Islah Party (affiliated to the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood) in the unity government.
The Saudis tried to reassure the Emiratis that this faction of Al-Islah had abandoned its Brotherhood connections, but Abu Dhabi was not convinced.
Following the Saudi pressure to remove the Emiratis from Yemen, Abu Dhabi has been warning about rising Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda influence in the south of the country. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has visited Cairo and Washington in an effort to refute such dangers.
Some analysts have noted that the visits to the two capitals were meant to guarantee regional and international support for Saudi moves in Yemen in order to “contain the mutiny” rather than to “pressure” its former Emirati ally into giving way or the return of militant Islamists to Yemen.
But British analyst Andrew Hammond told Al-Ahram Weekly that Saudi Arabia will only be able to stop the current chaos in Yemen “if they are bolder than they are naturally inclined to be. They need to be ruthless [in pressuring the UAE] and willing to annoy the US government.”
Referencing some angry exchanges on social media between Saudi and Emirati commentators, many Western pundits note that the rift between the two Gulf countries is about more than Yemen.
Professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University in the US Marc Lynch wrote in the US magazine Foreign Policy this week that “the stakes this time are just as high. The confrontation is about more than Yemen. And it’s more than just an ordinary squabble among Gulf allies.”
He concluded that the Saudi move against the UAE represents not just an effort to restrain Emirati adventurism but also to hedge against an increasingly reckless and threatening Israel.
As one veteran Western diplomat who has worked in the region put it, Saudi Arabia is reaching out to Washington to reassure the Americans that their policy is consistent with that of Saudi Arabia.
“If the US is working on re-shaping the Middle East, that job shouldn’t be left exclusively to Israel. The UAE and other signatories to the Abraham Accords may not mind being part of the Israeli endeavour. But that would undermine Saudi leadership in the region,” he told the Weekly.
The recent developments in Yemen do not mean that the southern claims for secession are over in Yemen, even with the STC weakened.
But things will now depend on how Riyadh manages to sort out the deepening rivalries between the factions, including the Houthis who thus far have been reluctant to engage in the political process.
Some suggest that with prospects of a weakened Iran, whether by internal disturbances or strikes from Israel or the US, the Houthis will lose their main backers in Tehran.
This would probably soften their position and bring them to the negotiating table, as Saudi Arabia desires.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 15 January, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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