"Saudi Arabia has accused the United Arab Emirates of smuggling a UAE-backed separatist Yemeni leader out of the country after he failed to turn up for crisis talks in Riyadh on Wednesday. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said Aidarous al-Zubaidi had fled the port city of Aden for Abu Dhabi under Emirati supervision, deepening a diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and the UAE."
"The crisis between the UAE and Saudi Arabia erupted last month when UAE-backed separatists swept through southern Yemen and reached the border with Saudi Arabia, which declared the move a threat to its national security. For years, the US allies had fought together in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis, before a 2022 ceasefire that left the Houthis in control of a chunk of north-western Yemen."
"Forces loyal to Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, which Saudi Arabia backs, take control of Aden. His flight puts a disastrous end to the now internally divided STC drive to declare southern Yemen a separate state and push out forces loyal to the internationally recognised government. The aim had been to return to the north-south split that prevailed prior to unification in 1990."
Saudi Arabia alleges the United Arab Emirates smuggled Aidarous al-Zubaidi, a UAE-backed separatist Yemeni leader, out of Aden after he missed crisis talks in Riyadh. The Saudi-led coalition says al-Zubaidi traveled by boat to the Emirati-owned port of Berbera in Somaliland, then flew via Mogadishu to an aircraft later tracked to a military airport in Abu Dhabi. STC sources did not dispute the escape. The crisis began when UAE-backed separatists advanced through southern Yemen toward the Saudi border, prompting Saudi concerns and charges of treason against al-Zubaidi. Forces loyal to the Presidential Leadership Council have taken control of Aden.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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