Page 9 - MEOG Week 25

MEOG P o L i C y MEOG

Yemeni separatists seize Socotra

from Saudi-backed government

yemen LAST week there was positive news of Yemen’s Previous clashes between Yemen’s Sau-
aims to raise its crude oil production by 25 per di-backed government and the Southern Tran-
cent to 75,000 barrels per day in the coming sitional Council (STC), a separatist group, have
months but in a sign of how volatile the country complicated UN efforts to end Yemen’s ruinous
is there has been a setback which cannot help conflict and protect its fractured health sector
this optimistic target to be met. from COVID-19.
Yemeni separatists have seized control of the The STC in April declared self-rule in Aden,
island of Socotra in the Arabian Sea, deposing its interim seat of the Riyadh-backed government,
governor and driving out the forces of the Sau- and in other southern regions, risking reigniting
di-backed government, which has condemned violence between the two sides, both members of
the action as a coup. The separatists have started the anti-houthi alliance.
to carry out self-rule measures. Riyadh submitted a proposal to implement
The Southern Transitional Council (STC) a power-sharing deal brokered by Saudi Arabia
declared self-rule in the south of the country in last November, but it stalled. It calls for a cease-
April, complicating UN efforts to forge a perma- fire in Abyan province and for the STC to rescind
nent ceasefire in a war that has separatists and emergency rule. Thereafter, Saudi-backed Presi-
the government fighting as nominal allies in a dent Abd-Rabbu Mansour hadi would appoint a
Saudi-led coalition against houthi rebels, who governor and security head for Aden, and name
control the north. a prime minister to form a cabinet that includes
The move at the weekend deepens the crisis the STC. The STC would then remove its forces
between the STC and the government after the from Aden and redeploy in Abyan, following
failure of a power-sharing deal in areas beyond which the new government would be formed.
the control of houthi rebels, who hold the capital Mistrust remains an obstacle to Riyadh’s
Sanaa and much of northern Yemen. attempts to prevent another front in the multi-
In a statement issued late on Saturday Senior faceted war it seeks to exit, a goal that has gained
STC official Salem Abdullah al-Socotri congrat- urgency ahead of its hosting of a G20 summit in
ulated the STC forces for “normalising the situ- November and as Yemen struggles with a coro-
ation” in Socotra, but a government spokesman navirus outbreak.
said the STC had mounted a “full-fledged coup” hadi’s government was overthrown by the
on the Indian Ocean island, located near major houthis from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014,
shipping routes and renowned for its biological prompting the coalition to intervene. The war,
diversity. The island also happens to be a UNE- which has caused the world’s largest human-
SCO World heritage Centre. itarian crisis, has been at a deadlock for years.
he called on the Saudi-led military coalition Riyadh late last year launched indirect talks with
- which intervened in the Yemen war in 2015 to the houthis, who say they are fighting a corrupt
support the government against the Iran-backed system. The conflict is seen in the region as a
houthi rebels - to stop the STC’s “tampering, proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.™
chaos and attacks” and compel them to imple-
ment the power-sharing Riyadh Agreement
signed last December.
Socotra’s governor, Ramzy Mahrous, said the
STC forces “overthrew” state institutions, after
which “they raided the city of hadibou”, the
island’s capital.
Military sources said that the STC took con-
trol of the island on Saturday after an operation
that began the day before, with only limited
clashes with pro-government forces. STC fight-
ers had entered hadibou and established check-
points there, the sources said.

Proposals
The invasion of Socotra comes at a time when
Saudi Arabia has made a proposal to end the
standoff between allies in the south of Yemen as
violence escalates with the houthi movement in
the north of the country.

Week 25 24•June•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9