Yemen plunged into chaos between rival governments

Saudi Arabian bombing on Sana, Yemen

Yemen has been plunged into chaos as regional powers compete for influence in the war-torn country.

In early December, Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces took control of Hadramout and al-Mahra governorates in the south of Yemen. Hadramout alone has around 80 percent of Yemen’s oil fields.

The STC has been part of Yemen’s internationally recognised Presidential Leadership Council since 2022. But it remains a separatist movement, wanting an independent state along the old borders of South Yemen—North and South Yemen unified in 1990.

Saudi Arabia, which supports the rival Yemini government, demanded that United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed STC withdraw its troops from Hadramout. Then, the UAE sent an arms shipment to the port of Mukalla, which is under STC control. 

In response, Saudi Arabia bombed STC forces at the port. Intense fighting broke out, wherein the STC refused to withdraw from areas captured, which led to further Saudi strikes.

At least 80 STC militants were killed in the fighting, but Saudi Arabia and Yemini factions agreed to talks.

But fighting resumed as president of the STC, Aidarus al-Zoubaidi, failed to show up for peace talks in Saudi Arabia, fearing that he would be arrested.

The conflict continued as the STC tried to take the strategically important port of Aden in the south of Yemen. The STC said al-Zoubaidi was in Aden, while Saudi forces bombed the southern governance of al-Dhale. 

The clash between Yemini groups has created further tension between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with Yemen now a key dividing line.

“The thing we need to do is place this in a wider context—in terms of the retreats of United States’ imperialism, everything is up for grabs,” Lebanese socialist Simon Assaf told Socialist Worker.

“The Saudis were always the bulwark of reaction in the Middle East, but the UAE is now a competitor. They are both trying to spread their influence, trying to position themselves amid a weakening of US hegemony.

“The UAE has its fingers everywhere—Libya, Sudan—and in projecting this regional power they are treading the Saudi’s toes, especially over who has control of Aden.”

Saudi Arabia sees itself as one of the dominant regional powers in the Middle East.

Simon explained that during the first Yemini revolution in the 1960s against the British occupation, the south was backed by Gamal Abdel Nasser, Arab Nationalist leader of Egypt.

“The Saudis stepped in to stop the spread of Nasserism—and they actually backed the Houthis to do that. The Saudis have always been like this really.”

Simon said that the UAE is a “rising power”, which has led it into backing the STC. Meanwhile, the Saudis see the Yemeni government as a means of expanding its regional power.

There is also the question of militant Islam, which emerged in Yemen in the 1994 civil war. Simon said it was “relatively self-contained” with little political influence.

But despite the current conflict, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen government make up an anti-Houthi coalition. The Shia liberation group currently controls around a third of Yemen in the north.

“But the Houthis do represent something, and Yemen has a really proud history of anti-imperialist struggles, the attempt at socialism in the South. The Houthis have some of this legitimacy with all their attacks on the Israeli and US ships in the Red Sea.

“The Saudis and the UAE have none of this. All we have in the south are two illegitimate movements which don’t represent anything progressive for the people of Yemen.”

As the balance of power shifts in the Middle East, the people of Yemen are bearing the fallout of that competition.