Yemen declares state of emergency and cancels defence pact with UAE after separatists seize territory, threatening fragile government and peace talks.
RIYADH: The leader of Yemen’s presidential council declared a state of emergency and cancelled a key security pact with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. The move follows a major territorial advance by UAE-backed separatist forces in the country’s south.
Rashad al-Alimi announced the cancellation of the Joint Defence Agreement with the UAE in an official statement. A separate decree imposed a 90-day state of emergency, including a 72-hour air, sea and land blockade.
The announcements come after the Saudi-led coalition said it struck a UAE weapons shipment destined for the separatists. Forces from the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council have seized most of resource-rich Hadramawt province and parts of neighbouring Mahrah this month.
Alimi ordered the STC to hand over the captured territory to Saudi-backed forces. He called the separatists’ advance an “unacceptable rebellion” in a televised address.
The confrontation risks tearing apart the already fractured Yemeni government, which has different factions backed by Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It also threatens slow-moving peace negotiations with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014.