Yemen separatists in Riyadh announce disputed ‘dissolution’

ZUBAIDI SKIPS TALKS

The STC announcement echoes another incident in 2017 when Lebanon’s prime minister Saad Hariri resigned in a televised address from Riyadh, where he was speculated to be under house arrest.

After French intervention, Hariri returned to Lebanon and rescinded his resignation.

Yemeni separatist leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi was meant to travel with the delegation to Riyadh this week, but pulled out of the trip after learning that Saudi Arabia would ask him to dissolve the STC, an official from the group told AFP.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Zubaidi fled to Abu Dhabi with UAE help on Wednesday, while the STC insisted he was still in Aden.

Since then, he has been ousted from the eight-member presidential body that heads the Yemeni government.

The oil-rich UAE and Saudi Arabia formed the backbone of the coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who overran the capital Sanaa in 2014 and still control much of the country.

Saudi Arabia supports Yemen’s government, now based in Aden, while the UAE threw its weight behind the STC, which forms part of the Presidential Leadership Council and commands potent paramilitary forces.