ISTANBUL

Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC) rejected on Tuesday a deadline set by the Presidential Leadership Council for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to withdraw forces from the country amid escalating tensions in the Arab country.

Presidential council chairman Rashad al-Alimi early Tuesday cancelled a joint defense pact with the UAE and gave a 24-hour deadline for the UAE forces to withdraw. He also declared a state of emergency for a 90-day period, along with a 72-hour air and land ban on all ports and border crossings.

The move came shortly after the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen launched a "limited" airstrike targeting two ships linked to the UAE at the Mukalla port in Yemen.

A statement by the STC and four members of the presidential council expressed categorical rejection of “any unilateral decisions that plunge Yemen into new confrontations, target its regional allies, or undermine the foundations of the Arab coalition.”

It denounced measures taken by the presidential council chief as “a clear violation" of the declaration of transferring powers, claiming that no individual or entity, including the council, has the authority to terminate the membership of any party within the coalition.

“The UAE has been, and continues to be, a key partner in confronting the Houthi project,” the statement added.

Yemen has seen a relative state of calm since April 2022, when a truce halted hostilities between government forces and the Houthi group that erupted in September 2014, when the Iran-aligned Houthis seized Sanaa.

Tension, however, has re-escalated recently after the STC took control of Hadramaut and Al-Mahra early this month after clashes with government forces.

The STC repeatedly claims that successive governments have politically and economically marginalized southern regions and calls for their separation from the north – claims rejected by the Yemeni authorities, as they insist on preserving the country’s territorial unity.