Gains made by UAE-backed separatists in Yemen fuel tensions with Saudi Arabia

The offensive may only just be beginning. After seizing large swaths of territory in southern and eastern Yemen last week, the Southern Transitional Council (STC) — the UAE‑backed Yemeni separatist movement — has now set its sights on Sanaa. In a statement published Wednesday on the STC’s website, the group’s leader, Aidarous al‑Zubaidi, said that the capital, currently held by the Houthi rebels, would be the group’s next target, “peacefully or through war, until justice returns to its people and the aggression is defeated.”This momentum could shatter the fragile status quo that had been established in Yemen’s war, reigniting large-scale clashes with the Tehran-backed insurgent group while also heightening tensions with Saudi Arabia. “Zubaidi’s statement is more political signaling than a real military direction,” said Ahmad Nagi, a...