RIYADH – Saudi and Emirati envoys shuttled between Yemeni government forcesand besieging southern separatists in second city Aden on Thursday in a bidto end a tense standoff after days of deadly infighting.
The Sunday assault on the embattled government’s headquarters by its formerallies has opened up a new front in the devastating civil war that hascreated what the United Nations says is the world’s worst humanitariancrisis.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are the two major contributors toa military coalition that has backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi sincehe fled into exile in 2015.
But they have struggled to keep together the disparate alliance supportinghim against Huthi Shiite rebels who control the capital Sanaa and much ofthe north.
South Yemen was an independent country until union with the north in 1990and Hadi has relied heavily on militia that support its restoration.
Many of them have been recruited into special forces units trained by theUAE to fight Al-Qaeda, which has a large presence in parts of the south.
On Wednesday, those forces deployed across Aden bringing a lull in thedeadly clashes that had forced a halt to the distribution of desperatelyneeded relief supplies for days.
– Airport reopens –
The separatists said they were in full control of Aden on Thursday.
“The security situation is stable and we are working with the coalition toconsolidate it,” a separatist official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Yemen Airways said it had resumed flights from Aden airport with a serviceto Cairo on Thursday.
Only the presidential palace in the north of the city remains under thecontrol of government forces, military sources said.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have not abandoned their support for Hadi, wholives in exile in Riyadh, but they have singularly failed to intervenemilitarily in support of Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher and otherministers who are holed up under siege in the palace.
The two governments’ envoys “met with all concerned parties, stressing theneed to abide by the ceasefire … and refocus efforts on the front linesagainst the Huthis”, the UAE’s official WAM news agency reported.
“The situation in Aden is stable and all parties have complied completelywith the communique issued by the Arab coalition,” Major General Mohammedbin Saeed al-Mughaidi of Saudi Arabia told reporters in Aden.
“The kingdom and the United Arab Emirate have a common goal and the samevision and have no ambitions.”
UAE Major General Mohammed Matar al-Khyeli said: “Saudi Arabia and the UAEstand together with the Yemeni people and are leading reconciliationefforts between the Yemeni parties.”
The UAE has close ties to separatist Hani bin Breik, a leader of theSouthern Transitional Council to which many of the forces now in control ofAden are loyal.
Both it and Saudi Arabia have urged Hadi’s government to heed theseparatists’ grievances and called on all sides to show restraint.
At least 38 people have been killed and 222 wounded in Aden since Sunday,according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The UN agency for humanitarian affairs reported a “cautious calm” in thecity late on Wednesday but said aid ships were still unable to dock.
Even before the latest fighting, Yemen already faced the world’s mostserious humanitarian crisis, with some 8.4 million of its 22.2 millionpopulation at risk of famine, according to the UN.