Saudi Arabia Attacks UAE-Backed Militants in Yemen

Saudi forces launched several strikes yesterday on a United Arab Emirates-backed group in Yemen, raising tensions in the area amid an ongoing civil war.

The current political state of Yemen remains extremely complicated due to the country's ongoing civil war, with three factions fighting for power. Since 2014, Yemen has been caught up in an intense civil war involving these three sides, complicating relations between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The first faction is the Supreme Political Council, or SPC, a group that continues to assert control over the Yemeni government. The SPC strongly supports the Houthis, an Islamic terrorist group that took over the country's capital of Sana'a in 2014, and they continue to control the capital and much of Yemen's western coast along the Red Sea.

The second of the groups is the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), a body that also claims to maintain rightful control over the government of Yemen. However, the PLC is the only group that is internationally recognized to hold power over Yemen. The PLC is backed by both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two countries that remain strongly against the Houthi group.

However, after the two nations intervened to attempt to restore control of the country to the PLC, the UAE began to back a third group: the Southern Transitional Council, or STC. The STC, on the other hand, is a separatist group that aims to establish southern Yemen as an independent state, as they were before 1990.

Prior to the year 1990, the region known as North Yemen, currently controlled by the SPC and PLC, was an independent state known as the Yemen Arab Republic. Meanwhile, the rest of modern-day Yemen was a communist nation known as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. In 1990, the leaders of both countries decided to unify the two states, which created peace for a short period of time before relations began to break down. In 1994, a civil war took place, but southern forces were defeated, leaving the government with frayed support and instability.

Now, the PLC – primarily backed by Saudi Arabia – and the STC – backed by the UAE – have opposing agendas, leading to conflict in the region. While the Houthis continue to sink ships and exchange strikes with Israel, Saudi and UAE-backed forces have clashed in Yemen, leading to several heated battles.

Last month, STC militias invaded PLC territory to gain control of oil resources, leading to conflicts where Saudi forces were fighting UAE forces. Relations between the two Arab nations, which were in good standing, rapidly degraded.

This week, Saudi-backed forces launched strikes on a UAE shipment arriving in Yemen's port of Mukalla, located along the southern coast in STC-controlled territory. In order to de-escalate the situation, the UAE pulled its forces out of Yemen to avoid further conflict, and Saudi-backed militants were quick to retake the land lost in December's invasions. According to local reports, at least 20 people have been killed in the attacks, but Saudi Arabia has insisted that the situation was an endangerment to their national security.

Now, the STC has officially declared independence from Yemen, naming themselves South Arabia. They have proclaimed their new capital to be Aden, a city of around 1.15 million people that was previously the capital of the southern state prior to Yemen's unification. They also stated that they will hold a referendum for independence to assess the willingness of the people after two years, but that period can be extended.

Unfortunately, Yemen remains divided over these differences, and the Houthi terrorist group will only use these battles to their advantage as they work to take control of the country. Which faction will prevail – or whether the country will split in two – is yet to be seen, but the conflict could continue for many years to come.

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Image credit to AP