The United Arab Emirates has agreed to re-enter the Yemen conflict by resuming payments to some government forces fighting the Houthis in the south, and Saudi Arabia has agreed in return to provide air cover for those forces, The Guardian reported on Saturday, citing sources in Yemen. The forces are mainly the Southern Giants Brigades, previously trained and funded by the Emirates and described in the report as among the most effective in the anti-Houthi coalition. The agreement is the first tangible sign that the rift between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh over Yemen’s future is starting to heal, driven by alarm at the Houthi advance.
Egypt moved on the same day. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi told a military academy graduation ceremony on Saturday that he had requested an emergency session of Egypt’s parliament to authorize him to take any acts of defence if Saudi Arabia requested them, Arab News reported. Egypt would take any measures necessary to protect and defend Saudi Arabia if the kingdom requested it, he said, and attacks targeting Saudi Arabia undermine Arab and Egyptian national security. He warned against threats to the security of the Red Sea and international shipping lanes, and The Guardian reported that he stressed Egypt would take no offensive action and would only defend Saudi Arabia.
The Emirati return reverses a January rupture. The Emirates quit operations inside Yemen in January and cut off funding to the southern forces after the Southern Transitional Council’s leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, fled to Abu Dhabi following a failed attempt to take charge across the south and announce a referendum on separation within two years. Saudi Arabia bombed Emirati arms shipments for the council’s forces, and the Saudi-backed government in Aden said it would seek to try Zubaidi for treason. The council has not yet agreed for its troops to fight outside the borders of the old Southern Yemen, and The Guardian reported that an explicit Saudi agreement to allow a referendum on secession would likely lift that restriction. There is no direct contact between Zubaidi and Saudi officials.
The military pressure behind the diplomacy is visible in Aden and in Saudi Arabia. Yemen’s government, based in Aden, declared a counteroffensive the previous week to drive Houthi forces from the capital, Sana’a, but the drive has met limited success around Majzar, near Marib, and at the Bab al-Mandab strait, The Guardian reported, while the Houthis remain determined to capture Taiz and Marib, the two remaining cities outside the boundaries of the old Southern Yemen. Saudi Arabia faces daily drone and missile attacks that have immobilised airports and some energy infrastructure. On Friday two Houthi missiles struck Aden airport as a passenger plane prepared to take off, with no casualties reported, and on Thursday at least five people were killed and 16 injured in a Houthi attack on the presidential palace in Aden, both covered in earlier editions.
Wider backing is also being assembled. The United Nations Security Council adopted a presidential statement on October 15 asserting Saudi Arabia’s right to act in self-defence in line with international law, and discussions continue in Britain about a Saudi request for further military aid; Britain has sent an RAF Voyager refuelling aircraft, The Guardian reported. No accurate death toll for the war since August is available, but more than 200,000 people have been displaced, according to the United Nations figures cited in the report, placing increasing pressure on humanitarian groups in Aden.