South Yemen’s separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council (STC)
has annonced that they are accepting the presence of Saudi military
forces in Aden as part of a deal intended to end fighting in the south.
They warned, however, that the Saudi-backed Hadi government is “not welcome” in Aden.
This reflects the difficulty in implementing a hard-won deal to end
fighting in the south when only one side is implementing any aspect of
the deal. The STC’s allies, the UAE, have withdrawn from Aden, and are allowing the Saudis to take their place.
Which is half of the deal, but getting the government back in Aden was
supposed to involve the Hadi government giving the STC some key posts in
a power-sharing deal. So far, the government has just skipped over
that, and insisted on being restored to power once the Saudis came back.
Giving the STC nothing is a non-starter, and the Saudis aren’t intended
to occupy Aden anyhow, they’re just there to train up a new apolitical
local militia to control the city. As with its other disputes, the Hadi
government may believe it can stonewall and the Saudis will ultimately
just take everything over and give them what they want.
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