Aden (South24 Center)

The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday, December 24, that it is working to contain the situation in the governorates of Hadramout and Al-Mahra, following military movements by the Southern Armed Forces affiliated with the Southern Transitional Council (STC).

In an official statement, the ministry described these movements as having been “carried out unilaterally without the approval of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) or coordination with the Coalition Command.”

The Saudi Foreign Ministry added that it had previously focused on the unity of ranks and exerted all efforts to reach peaceful solutions to address the situation in the two governorates.

The ministry noted that a joint military team from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been dispatched to make the necessary arrangements with the Southern Transitional Council in Aden.

According to the statement, these arrangements were intended to ensure the “return of the Southern Transitional Council forces to their previous positions outside the two governorates and the handover of camps therein to the Nation’s Shield Forces (Deraa Al-Watan) and the local authorities, under organized procedures and Coalition forces supervision.”

The Saudi Foreign Ministry stated, “Efforts to restore the situation to its previous state are ongoing.”

The statement added that Saudi Arabia “counts on the prioritization of the public interest, through the Southern Transitional Council taking the initiative to end the escalation and the withdrawal of its forces from the two governorates smoothly and urgently.”

Regarding the South Issue, the ministry described it as a “just cause with historical and social dimensions,” but stressed that it “will be resolved through dialogue among all Yemeni parties as part of a comprehensive political settlement.”

The Saudi statement came a day after the South24 Center for News and Studies published a report citing informed sources who said that the Southern Nation’s Shield Forces had rejected what they described as “direct Saudi pressure and orders” to enter a military confrontation with Southern forces in Hadramout Governorate.

According to the sources, leaders of the Nation’s Shield Forces were pressured to engage in clashes with the Southern Armed Forces; however, the commanders and fighters “categorically refused to be drawn into internal fighting,” emphasizing, according to the sources, that “their enemy is the Houthi group and not any Southern party.”

 Read more at: Nation Shield Forces Reject Saudi Orders to Confront Southern Forces in Hadramout

The sources added that the pressure campaign also targeted South tribal figures and military officers, some inside Yemen and in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with the aim of “inciting an internal confrontation” or “forming parallel entities speaking in the name of the South Cause.”

The sources further reported that family members of some Nation’s Shield commanders, including relatives of Second Bridge commander Fahd Ba-Momen, were detained in the Saudi city of Sharurah in an attempt to pressure him into involvement in internal clashes.

Sources informed South24 Center that units of the Southern Nation’s Shield Forces were deployed in several locations in Hadramout “at the initiative of the Southern Transitional Council,” and as part of “a division of tasks among Southern forces and in coordination with local authorities,” with the goal of “enhancing security and stability and preventing attempts to destabilize the situation.”