From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 30, 2025
Yemen declares state of emergency after separatists seize territory
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The leader of Yemen’s presidential council declares a state of emergency and cancels a security pact with the United Arab Emirates after Abu Dhabi-backed separatists seize swaths of territory.
“The Joint Defence Agreement with the United Arab Emirates is hereby canceled,” a statement says, while a separate decree announces a 90-day state of emergency including a 72-hour air, sea and land blockade.
The announcements by Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, come after the Saudi-led coalition fighting in divided Yemen said it struck a UAE weapons shipment destined for the separatists.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (SCT) forces have swept through the south of Yemen this month, taking most of resource-rich Hadramawt province and swaths of neighboring Mahrah.
Alimi orders the SCT to hand over the territory to Saudi-backed forces, calling the separatists’ advance an “unacceptable rebellion” in a televised address.
The confrontation risks tearing apart the already fractured Yemeni government, which has different factions backed by oil-rich Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It also threatens slow-moving peace negotiations with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014, triggering a military intervention by the Saudi-led coalition.
The Times of Israel Community.