Saudi-UAE infighting ‘positive thing’ for Yemen: Journalist

As a rift continues to widen between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amid militant infighting in Yemen’s port city of Aden, a journalist says the situation is a “positive thing” since it serves Yemenis’ national interests and the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

“On the whole, this can be seen as a positive thing for the National Salvation Government in Sana’a because the enemies of Yemen are turning on each other and right now, there seems to be much more concentration by the Saudis on fighting the Emirati-backed rebels and for the Emiratis to back the Saudi-backed troops than concentrating on fighting the National Salvation Government in the north,” Brecht Jonkers, historian and journalist from Belgium, said during a Friday edition of Press TV’s The Debate program.

“For people who have analyzed and been following Yemen for a while, this was to be expected; there was never a real credible future plan in the Saudi-led invasion coalition in Yemen,” Jonkers added.

Emirati warplanes on Thursday carried out raids against positions of Saudi-backed militants in support of allied southern separatists in Aden. Reports say the UAE-backed separatists have regained full control of the strategic port city.

Military sources were cited as saying by media that the UAE warplanes had attacked positions of Saudi-backed militants loyal to ex-Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, in the Alam area at the eastern entrance to Aden. An unspecified number of pro-Hadi militants were killed in the attacks.

PressTV-‘UAE jets bomb Saudi-backed militants in Yemen’s Aden’

The flash-point Yemeni port city of Aden has once again fallen into the hands of armed groups backed by the UAE, which reportedly launched air raids against positions of rival Saudi-backed militants there.

A pro-Hadi source confirmed on Thursday that Aden was under full control of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) after the Saudi-backed troops withdrew from the city.

The UAE-backed STC forces seized Hadi’s temporary base in Aden from his militants on August 10. Some 40 people were killed in the clashes at the time.

Both the UAE-sponsored separatists, who want an independent state in South Yemen, and the Saudi-backed pro-Hadi militants once served the Riyadh-led coalition. They have been engaged, since 2015, in a bloody war on Yemen aimed at reinstating Hadi and crushing the popular Ansarullah movement.

Ties between the two sides have soured over a number of issues, including what many view as Abu Dhabi’s intention to occupy Yemen’s strategic Socotra Island and take control of major waterways in the region.

The United Arab Emirates also announced in June the pullout of most of its forces from the Yemen “quagmire” in a “face-saving” decision that deeply upset its Saudi allies.

PressTV-Saudi king ‘extremely irritated’ by recent UAE stances

King Salman has reportedly expressed his “irritation” with the UAE’s recent moves in latest evidence of a fissure in Saudi-UAE alliance.

Saudi Arabia ‘wants’ Yemen in full

With Saudi Arabia backing Hadi and the UAE supporting the STC in Yemen, the other panelist in the Friday Debate program — Michael Springmann, former US diplomat in Saudi Arabia from Washington DC — said the impoverished country was “on the verge of collapse.”

Springmann, however, noted that Riyadh wants to claim Yemen in full and would not settle for the partition of the war-ravaged country.

“The Saudis want to control all of Yemen and they will not be happy having to accept Yemen as being split in half,” Springmann said.

Southern Yemen was a separate country until it merged with the north in 1990.

PressTV-UAE leaving Yemen because Saudi war is unwinnable: NYT

The New York Times sheds light on the reason behind a surprise decision by the United Arab Emirates to withdraw its troops from Yemen.

In its relentless war against Yemen since 2015, Saudi Arabia has also targeted schools and hospitals.

According to estimates by the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), the Saudi war has killed more than 60,000 Yemenis.

The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

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