UAE-backed southern Yemen separatists to hold independence referendum
UAE-backed separatists in Yemen announced on Friday that they will hold a referendum on independence amid deadly fighting with Saudi Arabia and its Yemeni allies.
The Southern Transitional Council (STC) said it will start a two-year transitional period that includes holding a referendum on declaring an independent state after their forces seized large areas of the country's south in December.
"We announce the commencement of a transitional phase lasting two years, and the Council calls on the international community to sponsor dialogue between the concerned parties in the south and the north," STC President Aidaros Alzubidi said in a televised address.
However, he warned the group would declare independence "immediately" if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen again came under attack.
"This constitutional declaration shall be considered immediately and directly effective before that date if the call is not heeded or if the people of the south, their land, or their forces are subjected to any military attacks," he added.
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STC spokesperson Anwar al-Tamimi later told Al Jazeera Mubasher that the move to hold a referendum is in line with international law, and that "this declaration was prepared regardless of the movements of the National Shield and its control over a number of headquarters".
The government-backed National Shield forces earlier on Friday deployed against what they described as an insurgency by STC-affiliated units in eastern Yemen's Hadhramaut province, Asharq Al Awsat newspaper reported.
But they encountered multiple ambushes, prompting the Saudi-led coalition to send in its aircraft.
Hadhramaut's Governor Salem al-Khanbashi urged the STC to lay down its arms.
"We renew the emphasis on the justice of the southern cause, while rejecting the path of military control and confrontation, and calling for dialogue as the way to restore rights," he said on Friday.
A Saudi-UAE rift
Saudi Arabia had initially carried out air strikes on positions held by the STC in southeastern Yemen earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Saudi planes bombed the port of al-Mukalla, targeting what Riyadh said was a UAE-linked weapons shipment destined for the STC.
The strike led to an unprecedented, furious diplomatic exchange between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
On Friday, at least 29 STC fighters were killed and more than 20 others wounded, a military official for the group told AFP, after Saudi planes hit an STC camps in Hadhramaut.
The attacks came as forces backed by Riyadh launched an offensive to reclaim territory taken over by the STC in December.
The kingdom backs the Presidential Leadership Council, which is the internationally-recognised government of Yemen. The country descended into chaos after the Houthis captured the capital Sanaa a decade ago. The group, which is aligned with Iran, controls most of Yemen's populous north.
In December, STC forces seized large swathes of Yemen's south. In response, Saudi Arabia has rallied its allies including the Hadramaut Tribal Alliance and a militia called the National Shield, to pushback the STC.
The fighting has exposed the deteriorating ties between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two powerful Gulf states and US allies.
Both countries intervened in Yemen a decade ago in a failed bid to oust the Houthi rebels from the north.
More recently, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have fallen out over Yemen and Sudan while taking different approaches to Israel's war on Gaza and Ahmed al-Sharaa's government in Syria.
The STC's announcement on a referendum comes after Israel unilaterally recognised the breakaway Somali region of Somaliland as an independent state.
Somaliland has deep military and political ties to the UAE. Unlike other Arab states, Abu Dhabi did not condemn the Israeli decision.
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