After Monday’s fighting in Zinjibar, the Yemen government is now claiming that the Southern Transitional Council (STC) had refused their offers to negotiate and de-escalate the conflict over the future of South Yemen.
The STC declared self-rule recently, aiming to reestablish South Yemen as an independent state. The Saudi-backed government has a big problem with this, however, because their territory is more or less only in the south.
The government versus STC fight is mostly a proxy fight between the Saudis and UAE, who heavily back both factions and envision gaining from a post-war situation in which the respective groups control important territory.
It is common for the government to accuse the STC of being unreasonable, though the Saudis and UAE initially brokered a power-sharing deal which the government reneged on, and this is likely informing the STC on questions to negotiate any further.
Yemen Government Says Separatists Refuse Offer to De-Escalate
Yemen Army vows to 'preserve the state' and stop the separatists
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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