Thousands rally in support of Yemen’s main separatist group

ADEN, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Thousands of people took to the streets of Aden in southern Yemen on Saturday in support of the country’s main separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council, which denied it was planning to disband.

Some held up photos of STC leader Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who has fled the country, while others chanted “southerner, raise your voice, independence or death”, a Reuters witness said.

The STC, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates, seized parts of southern and eastern Yemen in December in advances that heightened tensions with another Gulf power, Saudi Arabia.

Saudi-backed fighters have largely retaken the areas of southern and eastern Yemen that the STC had seized. Rashad al-Alimi, chief of the Saudi-backed Presidential Council, said in a televised statement on Saturday that all contested cities had been brought under their control.

People took to the streets despite Saudi-backed groups urging them on Friday not to do so.

“We have taken to the streets again… No one can silence us… Not Saudi Arabia, nor any other party or country,” one man told Reuters.

Another said: “This large public gathering is a powerful message and a popular referendum in the south for the Southern Transitional Council.”

The armed forces of the rival, Saudi-backed government said it would “strike firmly and decisively against anyone who seeks to tamper with security or disrupt public order,” without making any reference to the protests.

TENSIONS BETWEEN UAE AND SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Arabia and the UAE used to work together in a coalition battling Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen’s civil war but the STC advances exposed their rivalry, bringing into focus big differences on a wide range of issues across the Middle East ranging from geopolitics to oil output.

An STC delegation travelled to the Saudi capital Riyadh earlier this week for talks that its leader, Zubaidi, skipped. The Saudi-led coalition accused the UAE of helping him escape on a flight that was tracked to a military airport in Abu Dhabi.

In an announcement broadcast on Saudi state media on Friday, one of the group’s members said the STC had decided to disband.

But in a statement issued on Saturday, the STC said it had held an “extraordinary meeting” following the announcement in Riyadh and declared it “null and void”, saying it had been made “under coercion and pressure”.

The group also said its members in Riyadh had been detained and were being “forced to issue statements”.

The STC reiterated calls for mass protests in southern cities on Saturday, warning against any attempts that target the group’s “peaceful activities”.

Authorities in Aden that are aligned with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government on Friday ordered a ban on demonstrations in the southern city, citing security concerns, according to an official directive seen by Reuters.

(Reporting by Reyam Mukhashaf, Menna Alaa El-Din and Jaidaa Taha; Editing by Mark Potter, Timothy Heritage and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)