ZINJIBAR: A fighter with the UAE-trained Security Belt Forces loyal to the pro-independence Southern Transitional Council (STC), stands atop a military vehicle near the south-central coastal city of Zinjibar in south-central Yemen yesterday. - AFP

RIYADH: The
leader of southern Yemeni separatists has arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks
aimed at ending a standoff in Aden port between the separatists and Yemen's
Saudi-backed government, who had been nominal allies under a Sunni Muslim
military coalition. Saudi Arabia, the coalition leader, called for a summit
after the separatists on Aug 10 took over Aden, interim seat of the government,
in a move that fractured the alliance.

The ousted Yemeni
government and coalition partner the United Arab Emirates traded blame over the
crisis late on Tuesday. It was not clear if a delayed meeting involving both
Yemeni sides would go ahead after the separatists extended their grip on the
south on Tuesday by seizing government military camps in nearby Abyan.

The separatist
fighters are part of the Saudi-led alliance that intervened in Yemen in March
2015 against the Houthis, who ousted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi from
power in the capital Sanaa in late 2014. His government rebased to Aden.
However, the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) has a
rival agenda to Hadi's government, which has refused to participate in any
talks unless the southern forces reverse what it calls a coup.

Trading
accusations

The standoff has
complicated efforts to end the ruinous war and has exposed differences between
regional allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which in June scaled down its
presence in Yemen while still backing thousands of southern separatist
fighters.

STC chief
Aidaroos al-Zubaidi arrived in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah late on Tuesday
for the talks, the STC said. Hadi's government asked Abu Dhabi, which has
called for dialogue, to stop funding and arming separatist forces. "If it
were not for the full support provided by the United Arab Emirates ... this
rebellion would not have happened. This scheme of fragmentation continues and
is escalating despite calls for de-escalation led by Saudi Arabia," said a
government letter to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

The UAE responded
by reaffirming its commitment to the coalition and criticizing the "weak
performance" and "ineffectiveness" of Hadi's government and its
inability to engage in constructive dialogue with other Yemeni parties.
"It is not appropriate for the Yemeni government to hang its political and
administrative failure on the UAE," Abu Dhabi's deputy permanent U.N.
representative said in New York. His remarks were carried on state news agency
WAM yesterday.

The STC said it
would hold Aden until elements of the Islamist Islah, which the UAE regards as
an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, and northerners are removed from power
positions in the south. It also wants a say in Yemen's future. Yemeni sources
have said the delayed summit could discuss reshuffling Hadi's government to
include the STC, which seeks self-rule in the south and blames Islah, a key
Hadi ally, of being complicit in a Houthi assault on southern forces earlier
this month. The Islah party denies the charge.

The Houthis point
to Aden as proof that Hadi is unfit to rule. The group, which holds Sanaa and
most big urban centers, has recently stepped up attacks on Saudi cities. The
conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and pushed Yemen to the brink of
famine, is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and
Iran. - Reuters