ADEN, May 23 (NNN-SABA) – Military confrontations between forces loyal to the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and Yemen’s government became imminent, amid rising tensions over the control of key areas, a military official said yesterday.
Tensions escalated in the wake of recent government’s accusations to the STC, on refusing to implement a Saudi-brokered deal signed between the two rivals in 2019.
“The government and the STC dispatched heavy troops, backed by armoured vehicles, to areas near the coastal town of Shuqrah, located on the Arabian Sea,” the source said.
The two sides are currently blaming each other for truce breaches and failure to implement the remaining security provisions of Riyadh deal.
The source said, STC troops were prepared and ready to engage in new confrontations against the government forces, in the country’s south.
On the other side, government forces raised the level of combat readiness of some units, in an attempt to prevent STC’s troops from advancing on-ground and seizing new key southern areas.
Another security official confirmed that, relationship between the two rivals, representing the country’s recent power-sharing government, has strained further, as STC troops tightened its grip over the Socotra Archipelago, an area officially part of Yemen.
“The STC that’s part of Yemen’s government, heavily deployed its military units and tightened security measures in the strategic Socotra Island.”
Socotra is located in one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, and Yemen’s warring factions sporadically engage in armed confrontations over establishing military bases there, for controlling the strategic island.
In 2019, Saudi Arabia persuaded the STC and the Yemeni government to hold reconciliation talks, which succeeded in reaching a deal to form a new technocratic cabinet and ending a deadly conflict in the country’s southern regions.
In accordance with the terms of the Saudi-brokered deal, jointly signed between the two sides, Yemen’s President, Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi issued a decree in Dec, 2020, to form a new power-sharing government.– NNN-SABA
