The Yemeni government described the storming of the demonstrators in the presidential palace of Maasheeq in Aden on Tuesday as an attack on the state, while the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council called on the Saudi-Emirati coalition to find out the causes of these events.

Hundreds of people demonstrated in Aden against the poor living conditions, and then a number of them stormed the first gate of the Masheeq Palace, the headquarters of the Yemeni government, without being intercepted by the guard forces loyal to the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council.

A Yemeni government source told Al-Jazeera that the demonstrators surrounded some ministers inside their residence in the palace, and the advisor to the Ministry of Information, Mukhtar Al-Rahbi, said on Twitter, that "the storming of the palace came after instigation by the Southern Transitional Council."

A government source stated that Prime Minister Moein Abdel-Malek moved during the demonstrations inside Maasheeq Palace to the headquarters of the Saudi forces, which is located below the palace.

The protesters left later that day.

Pictures posted on Facebook showed demonstrators wandering inside the palace, and it was noticeable that a number of them were carrying the logos of the Southern Transitional Council, and the place was empty of guard and security forces.

Hours after the storming, the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council called on the Saudi-Emirati coalition to find out the causes of these events, and called on it to find a radical solution to provide full support to the government, as well as to the governor of Aden, and to enable them to perform their duties without hindrances.

In a press statement, the council called on the organizers of the protests to fully coordinate with all parties "to avoid distorting the paths of peaceful work," and announced the taking of security measures to confront any acts of deliberate sabotage and chaos in the temporary capital, Aden, as he put it.

The council called for the necessity of standing with what it described as a parity government "to expose the corrupt and end the suffering of the people of all classes."

He said that he reiterates the importance of implementing the Riyadh Agreement in order to reach a final solution by participating in the comprehensive peace process sponsored by the United Nations.

Statement No. 1

Earlier, however, Ahmed Saeed bin Buraik, a leader of the Southern Transitional Council, threatened to announce "Statement No. 1" in Aden soon.

In tweets on Twitter, Ben Brik, who is the head of the so-called National Assembly of the Southern Transitional Council, considered that the protesters stormed the Maasheeq Palace as a revenge for the demonstrators in Seiyun (in Hadramout governorate), who were forced to disperse protests denouncing the high cost of living.

Plan (C) Abyan and Lahj today and tomorrow we will turn the tables and there is no room for evasion. Statement No. (1) from Tahrir Square, Bakhour Maksar, will be shortly after, God willing, and the people of the south are rallying around his leadership in the Transitional Council.

- Ahmed Saeed Bin Brik (@ahmed_binbreak) March 16, 2021

Bin Brik added, "The south always flies over Al Alali with the two wings of Hadramout and Aden, and the rest of the southern provinces are the body for these two wings. The will of the people of the south always wins."

Bin Brik threatened to announce statement No. 1 from Khor Maksar Square (south of Aden) shortly after, adding, "Plan (c) Abyan and Lahj today, and tomorrow we will turn the tables and there is no room for evasion."

The term "Statement No. 1" is used for the statement in which the leaders of coups announce that they have seized power.

For its part, the Yemeni government said in a statement that it understands the legitimate demands and rights of citizens, especially with regard to improving the level of services and the economic situation, adding that they are priority issues and that it is working to solve them.

But she confirmed that what happened Tuesday does not belong to any form of legitimate peaceful protest, and can only be classified as a form of chaos and assault on the state and the law, according to the statement.

The government statement also considered that these events confirm "the necessity of redoubling efforts to expedite the implementation of the Riyadh Agreement in its security and military aspects."

Saudi Arabia calls for a meeting

On the other hand, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the kingdom's condemnation "in the strongest terms" of the demonstrators' storming of Al-Masheeq Palace.

In a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency late on Tuesday evening, she said that the Kingdom affirms its support for the Yemeni government, which began its duties in the temporary capital of Aden on December 30, and the importance of giving it the full opportunity to serve the Yemeni people in light of the current difficult humanitarian and economic conditions. .

The Kingdom called on the two parties to the Riyadh Agreement "for an urgent response and to meet in Riyadh to complete the implementation of the rest of the points in the agreement."

And she believed that the implementation of the agreement "is a guarantee of unifying the ranks of the various factions of the Yemeni people and injecting blood and healing the rift between its components."

On December 18, the new Yemeni government was formed equally between the north and the south, and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council won 5 bags out of 24.

This government formation - which was formulated within the framework of the Riyadh Agreement concluded in November 2019 - came with the intention of resolving the military situation in Aden and other areas that witnessed confrontations between government forces and the STC militants.

Protests and battles

For his part, the Yemeni Minister of Interior, Major General Ibrahim Haydan, said that what is happening in Aden will not deter the Yemeni army from the victories it has achieved against the Houthis.

Major General Haydan added in a tweet on his Twitter account that the events in Aden will increase the army's determination to support the fighting fronts against the Houthis.

He confirmed in another tweet that the difficult economic conditions the country is going through is another battle the government is waging, and that everyone must close ranks to achieve victory.

In the same regard, Yasser Al-Hasani, a journalist in the Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Yemen, said that the Southern Transitional Council served the Houthis and “stabbed the Yemeni government in the back” by storming Al-Masheeq Palace, at a time of intense battles with the Houthis.

Al-Hasani added, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, that the storming of the palace was carried out by elements of the Southern Transitional Council.

As for the researcher at the Southern Transitional Council’s Decision Making Center, Ali Al-Khulaki, he said that poor services and poor living conditions are the main driver of the protests in Aden, and the transitional council has nothing to do with it.

Al-Khlaki stressed, in an interview with Al-Jazeera, that popular movements were not limited to Aden, but also extended to other southern governorates.