Yemeni politicians met Sunday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in their first public gathering since a UAE-backed southern separatist group was disbanded, the Associated Press reported.
The meeting discussed the future of southern Yemen ahead of a Saudi-sponsored conference, but the dates for that conference had not been announced.
Participants said in a statement after the gathering that the talks “express a unified southern will,” represented by southern leaders from across society and governorates, who are seeking “a just, secure and guaranteed solution to our cause.”
The southern separatist formation at the center of the meeting was the Southern Transitional Council, or STC. The STC was established in April 2017 as an umbrella organization for groups seeking to restore South Yemen as an independent state as it was between 1967 and 1990, and it gained financial and military support from the UAE. The STC leadership dissolved the council earlier this month.
Saudi Arabia had bombed STC positions after the separatist group refused to withdraw from areas it seized in a December offensive, including Hadramout on the border with Saudi Arabia. The AP said government forces backed by Saudi Arabia regained control of Hadramout and Mahra provinces, part of the fighting that led to the disbanding.
The AP said the meeting also highlighted wider strains in the Saudi-led effort against Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, which has gripped the country since 2014, when Houthi rebels backed by Iran seized Sanaa and forced the internationally recognized government to flee southward and then into exile in Saudi Arabia.
Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who led the STC, reportedly declined to attend the Riyadh talks and instead sent a delegation. Saudi Arabia has accused the UAE of smuggling him to Abu Dhabi through Somalia, after the Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council expelled him and charged him with treason. The AP said the delegation’s participation was apparently meant to counter claims from al-Zubaidi supporters that the delegation was kidnapped in Saudi Arabia.
Sunday’s meeting included STC leadership members who have been in Riyadh for about two weeks. Abdel-Rauf al-Saqaf, described by the AP as a senior STC official, said: “The southern demand is clear: the restoration of the southern state.”
In a statement from the meeting, participants said they received “direct and practical assurances” from Saudi officials that forces allied with the STC will receive their salaries and “support to enhance their capabilities.”