Saudi Arabia called Saturday for talks among rival southern Yemeni factions amid fresh clashes in the resource-rich Hadramawt province, where the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) has seized wide stretches of territory in recent weeks.
In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry urged “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause.” Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.
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The appeal comes as gunfire rocked the coastal city of Mukalla, Hadramawt’s capital, according to an AFP journalist. Residents in the inland city of Seiyun also reported hearing gunfire and clashes early Saturday, a day after coalition strikes targeted the local airport and a military base.
The STC, backed by the UAE, has moved to consolidate its battlefield gains and is pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split Yemen in two. The separatist group has announced the start of a two-year transitional period toward declaring an independent state, saying the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.
The latest STC offensive has angered Riyadh and placed the oil-rich Gulf partners at loggerheads over the future of Yemen’s south, where their respective allies operate in overlapping zones of control. The Saudi call for dialogue signals a bid to halt escalation in Hadramawt, home to energy resources and key transport hubs.
The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to dislodge the Iran-aligned Houthi movement from Yemen’s north and restore the internationally recognized government. After a brutal, nearly decade-long war, the Houthis remain in place while Saudi- and Emirati-backed factions have turned their guns on each other across parts of the south.
Riyadh’s proposed conference would attempt to bring the competing southern power centers under one tent, at least temporarily, to hash out political arrangements and security coordination. The foreign ministry’s reference to “just solutions” nods to longstanding grievances in the south that have fueled calls for autonomy and, increasingly, full separation.
The immediate stakes are highest in Hadramawt, where clashes around Mukalla and Seiyun underscore how quickly the security picture has deteriorated. The STC’s bid to formalize a path to statehood—centered on a two-year transition and an independence referendum—has introduced a new phase in Yemen’s conflict, widening a rift between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi that complicates any wider political settlement.
Whether the Saudi initiative can arrest the slide into deeper intra-coalition fighting remains uncertain. For now, the prospect of a Riyadh gathering offers one of the few available off-ramps to de-escalate, even as armed confrontations continue in the south and the Houthis hold sway in the north.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
