10 February 2020•Update: 10 February 2020
ADEN
A top Yemeni official on Monday said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and its militias in Aden undermined the agreement reached in Riyadh.
"It is the UAE and its militias [the forces of the Southern Transitional Council] in Aden that caused the failure of the Riyadh Agreement [...] We have said this over and over again," Transport Minister Saleh al-Jabwani said on Twitter.
"What happened yesterday to the National Army and Saudi officers along with soldiers in the Al-Alam region of Aden prove this failure," said al-Jabwani.
"We have no legitimacy other than ourselves to prepare to crush this rebellion in Aden by force and the first introduction to this position is the return of the prime minister to Riyadh," he asserted.
Neither the UAE nor the Southern Transitional Council (STC) commented on the minister's remarks.
On Sunday, two military sources told to Anadolu Agency that a coastal defense firm accompanied by Saudi forces attempted to enter Aden to implement the Riyadh Agreement, but that UAE-backed STC forces stopped them, and forced them to return to the coastal region of Shakra in Abyan.
Both sources said that government forces avoided engagement with the gunmen and returned towards the coast.
Local media reported that airplanes belonging to the Saudi-led Arab coalition had flown in the Al-Alam area east of Aden, where tension runs high -- without carrying out any operations to assist the government forces to cross towards the temporary capital of Aden.
The Riyadh Agreement includes the return of the Yemeni government to the temporary capital of Aden and the merging of all military groups under the Ministries of Defense and Interior.
Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Iran-backed Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa. The crisis escalated in 2015 when a Saudi-led military coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.
Since then, tens of thousands of Yemenis, including numerous civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, while another 14 million are at risk of starvation, according to the UN.
*Bassel Ibrahim contributed to this report from Ankara
