Saudis call on Yemen separatists to pull back amid strain in anti-Houthi coalition

By AP 25 December 2025, 8:08 am

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Illustrative: Frame grab from video shows United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council separatist fighters as they prepare to storm the presidential palace in the southern port city of Aden, Yemen, in August 2019. (AP)

Saudi Arabia formally calls on Emirati-backed separatists in Yemen to withdraw from two governorates their forces now control in the country, a move that threatens sparking a confrontation within a fragile coalition that’s battling the Houthi rebels there.

The statement from Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry appears aimed at putting public pressure on the Southern Transitional Council, a force long backed by the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has backed other fighters within Yemen, including a force known as the National Shield Forces, in the war against the Iranian-backed Houthis the kingdom launched in 2015.

“The kingdom stresses the importance of cooperation among all Yemeni factions and components to exercise restraint and avoid any measures that could destabilize security and stability, which may result in undesirable consequences,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry warns.

The council has moved into Yemen’s governorates of Hadramout and Mahra. The Saudi statement said mediation efforts are aimed at having the Council’s forces return to “their previous positions outside of the two governorates and handover the camps in those areas” to the National Shield Forces.