Socotra: Saudi forces withdraw and Emirati-backed rebels mobilize

Yemeni sources stated that the Saudi forces withdrew from their positions in the city of Hadibu, the center of Socotra governorate, coinciding with the mobilization of the UAE-backed rebels, without a clear response from the legitimate government.

A Yemeni government source told Al-Jazeera that the Saudi forces withdrew from the strategic Haibik checkpoint and created a new point on the main road in Hadiboh.

A government official also told Anadolu that the Saudi forces present at the security points in Hadiboh, according to the agreement to end tensions between the government forces and the Southern Transitional Council, withdrew suddenly.

He added that this coincides with the mobilization by the Transitional Council, and that the Saudi-Emirati coalition aircraft flew in the sky of Hadiboh and the headquarters of the 1st Brigade, Marine Corps under the control of the rebels.

A government source had previously told Al-Jazeera that the UAE-backed transitional council continues to mobilize its forces in Socotra amid the silence of the Saudi forces, and that it smuggles weapons across the sea to circumvent Socotra's center, as it militarily mobilizes militarily and with a heavy weapon after its control of state weapons.

Yemeni presidency
The source added that Socotra Governor Ramzi Mahrous did not receive any directives from the Yemeni presidency or any support to confront what is happening.

Local sources told the island that the sheikhs and notables of Socotra province informed the commander of the Saudi forces in Socotra and the governor refused to accept infiltrators to the island across the sea, and demanded that they be returned quickly from where they came.

For his part, Mukhtar al-Rahbi, adviser to the Yemeni Minister of Information, said that what happened in Socotra is not a popular uprising against the legitimate government, but a rebellion by some soldiers against the state, indicating that the real anger is the demonstrations that took place in southern cities that refuse the announcement of the Transitional Council self-administration for the south.

Discussions with Saudi Arabia A
spokesman for the office of the Southern Transitional Council in London, Saleh Al-Noud, told Al-Jazeera that the council is discussing with Saudi Arabia a mechanism to end the fighting in the governorates of southern Yemen.

Al-Noud warned that the Yemeni government would not have a role in this mechanism if it continued its war in the south, indicating that its true battle should be in the north against the Houthis.

Al-Noud said that the Southern Transitional Council has become the legitimate in the south, and is the true partner of the Saudi-Emirati alliance.

On the other hand, the resigned Yemeni Minister of Transport, Saleh al-Jabwani, told Al Jazeera that the UAE and its militias in Aden behave as if Saudi Arabia does not exist, considering that the Saudis are powerless and handcuffed, and they have gone without political will, as he put it.

Government revenue
In the context, a government source said that the Transitional Council forced voluntary government facilities in Aden to transfer their revenues to bank accounts for the council.

Al-Jazeera obtained documents proving the delivery of the customs revenues of the free zone in the port of Aden, amounting to about one million dollars, to accounts in the National Bank instead of supplying them to the Central Bank of Yemen, after the presence of the head of the Economic Department of the Transitional Council.

The UAE-backed transitional council seized Aden in August after clashes with government forces, and in April the council declared a state of emergency and self-administration in the areas it controlled in southern Yemen, while the Yemeni government described the decision as a coup.