S.Arabia, UAE renew call for south Yemen peace talks

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates renewed a call on Monday for peace talks between Yemen's government and southern separatists, urging a ceasefire following deadly clashes.

The Yemeni government has previously insisted it would only take part in talks after separatist forces withdraw from positions they seized in interim capital Aden earlier this month.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi both technically back the internationally recognised government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in a four-year military intervention against Houthi rebels based in Yemen's north.

But the government has openly accused the UAE of backing forces loyal to the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC).

The UAE-backed Security Belt force, dominated by STC loyalists, took control of Aden on August 10 following deadly clashes with government troops that left at least 40 people dead.

In a joint statement Monday, the Saudi and Emirati foreign ministries urged both sides to cooperate with a coalition committee and to attend talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

The two countries “call for the speedy engagement in the Jeddah dialogue called by Saudi Arabia to address the causes and consequences of developments in some southern provinces”, they said.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir also urged the two sides to resolve their differences through dialogue.

“The only way open to our brethren in Yemen is to overcome internal differences through the dialogue called for by the kingdom,” Jubeir tweeted on Monday.

He said Saudi Arabia and the UAE would spare no effort to achieve security and stability in southern Yemen.

Facing pressure from Saudi Arabia, the STC has partially withdrawn from some positions it occupied in Aden, but it retains control of key military sites. 

Fighting flared again between loyalists and secessionists on Thursday night in the southern province of Shabwa, leaving 11 dead according to medics.

Government military sources told AFP on Monday that government troops have taken control of the whole of Shabwa after separatists surrendered.

Yemen’s Prime Minister Mueen Abdulmalek made a surprise visit to provincial capital Ataq after the fighting, the official SABA news agency reported on Monday.

Later in the day, Yemen’s defence ministry ordered its troops in Aden, Abyan and Shabwa provinces to observe a complete ceasefire.

That came hours after the Saudi-led coalition spokesman Turki Al Maliki urged all sides to observe a ceasefire.

On Sunday, the defence ministry reiterated accusations that the UAE was backing separatist attacks on government positions in several of southern provinces.

But in its statement, the coalition “rejected and condemned accusations and defamation campaigns” targeting the UAE, recalling the country’s efforts against the Houthis.

The STC is demanding renewed independence for South Yemen, which was a separate country before unification in 1990.

The coalition intervened in support of the Yemeni government in 2015 after the Houthis seized the capital Sanaa and most of the Arab world’s poorest nation.

Since then, the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, aid agencies say. 

The fightings has sparked what the United Nations labels the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.