ISTANBUL

Chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council Rashad al-Alimi called Saturday on the Southern Transitional Council (STC) to immediately withdraw from Hadramout and Al-Mahra provinces in the country’s east and hand over military camps to government forces.

“We affirm our full support for the efforts of our brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,” he said on the US social media company X.

He urged the STC to “immediately respond to these efforts, withdraw from Hadramout and Al-Mahra, and hand over the camps to the Nation Shield Forces and local authorities, in order to preserve unity and the higher national interest of the country.”

The Nation Shield Forces were formed in 2023 by a decision from Alimi and operate under his command as supreme commander of Yemen’s armed forces.

In 2019, an agreement was signed in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with a view to containing infighting within Yemen’s internationally recognized government after clashes in Aden between government forces and the STC, which advocates southern secession.

The deal aimed to integrate the STC into government institutions, unify political and military decision-making, and transfer presidential powers to a presidential leadership council.

Since Dec. 3, the STC forces have taken control of parts of Hadramout following clashes with the Hadramout Tribes Alliance and government-aligned First Military Region forces. Four days later, STC forces expanded their control to Mahra, which had been under government authority.

The STC says successive governments have politically and economically marginalized southern regions, a claim Yemeni authorities deny, as they insist on the country’s territorial unity.