Saudi Arabia plans to establish a new administrative body to govern Yemen’s southern city of Aden in hopes of countering the influence of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), Yemen Press Agency reported on 3 July.
Establishing the new Aden Board of Directors is viewed by many as a Saudi effort to compete with the UAE for control of the city.
Though allies in the war against the Ansarallah resistance movement — whose National Salvation Government (NSG) governs most of Yemen’s populated areas — Saudi Arabia and the UAE nevertheless compete for influence in the rest of Yemen.
Critics accuse both countries of seeking to divide Yemen to control its natural resources and strategic ports within their respective spheres of influence.
Aden is home to the Saudi-appointed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), which claims to be the legitimate government of Yemen and has been recognized by western powers.
Aden acts as the PLC provisional capital but is primarily controlled by militias of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), a secessionist organization established in May 2017 and headed by the former Governor of Aden, Aidarus al-Zoubaidi.
In May, the STC signed the Southern National Charter calling for “the restoration of the state of the south with its political and geographical borders according to what was before May 22, 1990,” when Southern Yemen and Northern Yemen were reunited.
Both UAE and Saudi-backed militias are present in Aden, including Dera al-Watan Forces, which the UAE claims is composed of extremist Salafists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Riyadh’s push to promote the Aden Board of Directors resembles a similar effort to expand the kingdom’s influence in the oil-rich Hadhramaut province in competition with the UAE.
Last month, Saudi officials invited the province’s political and tribal leaders to a conference in Riyadh, after which the establishment of the Hadhramaut National Council (HNC) was announced.
Hadhramaut is the largest province of Yemen and constitutes more than one-third of the country’s area. In addition to oil and mineral wealth, it has a 450-kilometer coastline and was the only Yemeni port that kept operating during the war.
Hadhramaut has been considered the UAE’s sphere of influence in the south since April 2016, when Al-Qaeda militants withdrew from Mukalla, the province’s capital city, and its neighboring areas.
The plans to split Yemen into semi-independent provinces come in the wake of Omani-mediated peace talks between Riyadh and Sanaa.
These talks recently saw the repatriation of dozens of dead fighters and the release of nearly 1,000 prisoners of war from Saudi and Yemeni jails.
While the negotiations have resulted in several agreements, including lifting restrictions on Yemen’s main port and airport, many factors continue to complicate peace efforts – particularly the widespread occupation of Yemeni oilfields and the illegal presence of US, UK, French, and Israeli troops.