Two coups were carried out in Aden and an agreement was signed in Riyadh ... the southern transitional hand of the UAE strike in Yemen

In the middle of the night of the second of Ramadan, forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council moved in several neighborhoods of Aden in parallel with a statement issued by the President of the Council residing in the Emirates announcing self-management and an emergency in the south.

Today’s “coup” is not the first military move by the Southern Transitional Council against legitimate government forces in the southern governorates. It carried out a previous coup last year in Aden, and has fought with it skirmishes and armed clashes more than once during the past three years.

The establishment
announced the formation of the Presidency of the Southern Transitional Council on May 11, 2017, a week after promoting news that the Southern Movement had mandated the leaders of the Council to form a political leadership to represent and manage the south.
The Southern Transitional Council is headed by Aidarous al-Zubaidi, a politician and activist in the Yemeni Southern Movement, who took over the governor of Aden on December 7, 2015, but President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi dismissed him on April 27, 2017 and appointed him as an ambassador at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The leadership of the council includes 26 people, including Hani bin Brik, the deputy chairman of the Southern Transitional Council, who is close to the UAE authorities, and the founding statement of the authority announced that it continues to support the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia against the Houthis and the forces of Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Its founding statement also stressed that the council is clinging to partnership with the international community in the war on "terrorism", and has not forgotten to thank the United Arab Emirates for its role "in preparing the security and military system to combat terrorism, and to establish security and stability in all southern governorates."

Relationship
with the Emirates The Council's relationship with the Emirates was evident from the beginning, as Al-Zubaidi adopted and supported him, and his deputy Hadi Bin Brik was a personal figure close to the Abu Dhabi authorities.

The UAE has paid a number of the governors of the South Yemen region to join the membership of the council that it heads, at a time when some of them prefer to travel to Saudi Arabia in parallel with the South Yemeni Council having held a meeting in Mukalla.

After announcing the formation of the council, al-Zubaidi and his deputy, Bin Brik, went to Saudi Arabia, where they spent a week there, and then soon went to Abu Dhabi, where they spent - according to media reports - weeks, interspersed with an unannounced visit to Zubaidi to Cairo. Subsequently, pictures of al-Zubaidi and Bin Brik were published with Emirati officials, led by Mohammed bin Zayed.

Sources close to the legitimate government say that the president of the council resides in the Emirates, and has close ties to its leadership, and that the military moves that the council makes from time to time in the south and Aden in particular, the first decision in it belongs to the Emirates.

The first coup
On August 10 last year, the UAE-backed Transitional Council forces took control of the Maashek presidential palace in Aden (southern Yemen), after the presidential protection forces - affiliated with the legitimate government - handed over the palace to the Majlis forces without a fight.

News agencies reported that leaders of the Transitional Council confirmed that they had taken control of the presidential palace in Aden, while the Yemeni government said that the southern separatists carried out a coup against the internationally recognized government.

This development came hours after the security belt forces and the Emirati-backed Transitional Council controlled vital military sites and vital facilities in the governorate, after days of battles with the legitimate government forces.

Riyadh agreement,
nearly three months after the Aden coup; the government signed an agreement with the Southern Transitional Council in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on November 5, 2019, stipulating the formation of a government of competencies of no more than 24 ministers, with ministerial portfolios to be divided equally between the southern and northern governorates.

The agreement also stipulated the return of the Yemeni government to Aden, and the initiation of merging all military formations within the defense and interior ministries, as well as other military and security arrangements, and an exchange of prisoners of battles between the two parties.

The agreement set a two-month deadline for implementing its provisions, but most of them were not implemented, amid mutual accusations between the two parties.

The second coup is
in a new development, although not entirely surprising. The Southern Transitional Council announced at dawn today, Sunday, the self-management of the areas it controls in the south of the country, starting at midnight on April 25, and the legitimate government described what happened as an armed rebellion.

In a statement issued by its president, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, the council announced a general emergency in Aden and the southern governorates, and mandated the council’s forces to implement them from Saturday.

In his statement, Al-Zubaidi accused the Yemeni government of not carrying out its duties, as he accused the Saudi-Emirati coalition of "unjustified silence" for these actions, noting that the council had given them (the Yemeni government and the coalition) a deadline since early October last to improve the living conditions without causing any treatments .

The council justified its move, among other things, including "non-payment of salaries and wages of employees of the military and security establishment, retirees and civilians for several months", "cessation of support for the fronts involved in arms, ammunition, food and living requirements", and fueling "national rivalry and seeking to destabilize and disrupt the national cohesion."

In the first reaction to the transitional council's declaration of putting its hand in the south and declaring a state of emergency, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry considered that "the announcement of the so-called transitional council its intention to do what he called the southern administration is but a continuation of the armed rebellion last August and a declaration of rejection and a complete withdrawal from the Riyadh agreement ".