UAE Turns Southern Yemen to its Own Protectress
YemenExtra
Y.A
The Washington Post highlightined in a report the expansion of the UAE within the province of Hadramaut, Yemen, which turned the province to a UAE protectress run by Mohammed bin Zayed through his loyal forces to there.
The governor of the province, Faraj al-Bahsani, who leads the province alongside a local paid fighters trained by the UAE ,called as”Hadramiah Elite,” pushed with his UAE allies for stability in Mukalla after the occupation of the city for more than a year, starting in 2015.
The militants had easily defeated Yemeni forces in the city and controlled Mukalla in order to get money, whereas they looted the Central Bank and withdrew funds from the port, but Yemeni troops, trained by the UAE, returned to the city in April 2016.
But the region never returned to the national fold, but rather emerged as a cross between an independent republic and protectress of the UAE, which built many military bases in the province.
It pointed out to what was written by experts of the UN earlier this year that “Yemen as a country no longer exists, and instead of one state, there are conflicting states, whereas there is no one side that has the political support or the military power to reunite the country or to achieve victory in the arena of” Battle “.
The newspaper read that the behavior of the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Yemen threatens US policy.
US officials , for their part, say they are pushing the warriors toward a negotiated end of the war, which Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo recently described as a “national security priority.” but the United States is far from being a neutral party. It also provides military assistance to an Arab military alliance fighting their enemy on behalf of Hadi, the fugitive former Yemeni president , loyal to the US-backed Saudi-led coalition.
The newspaper noted that the two prominent members of the coalition ,UAE and Saudi Arabia, have covered their bets and goals in Yemen by alliances with local political figures and sponsoring forces.
It added that the Hadramiah Elite force receives salaries from the UAE and another from the Yemeni government, raising questions about the loyalty of soldiers. The payments also led to concerns about friction within the ranks because soldiers paid by the government receive far less than their colleagues.
In most southern provinces ,similar security units supported by the Saudi-led coalition, including some who openly fought against Hadi forces, have emerged.
The question of who controls the areas has become even more urgent ,so the difficulties caused by the war , throughout the country, have reflected onYemenis, making business owners, factory workers and the working class frustrated , unsure of where they seek help.
For business owners, the absence of the central government has caused a frustrating conflict so they can overcome the confusion of overlapping Yemeni authorities.
A businessman in Mukalla, an importer of foodstuffs, said he had been asked to obtain permission from the Saudi-led coalition in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, to pick up shipments at the port of Mukalla, adding that he believed that the system was firmly established by the existence of the coalition and was working smoothly, but he was shoked when he was told recently that there was a need for an additional permit from Al Rayyan Airport – in reference to the military base run by the United Arab Emirates.
A new investigation by Associated Press has found that the coalition waging a war on Yemen has secured secret deals with al-Qaeda terrorists in the violence-wracked country, recruiting hundreds of its militants in the ground operations against the Houthi Ansarullah movement , part of the Yemeni army forces.
In March 2015, the US backed –Saudi-led coalition started a war against Yemen with the declared aim of crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement, who had taken over from the staunch Riyadh ally and fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, while also seeking to secure the Saudi border with its southern neighbor. Three years and over 600,000 dead and injured Yemeni people and prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country, the war has yielded little to that effect.
Southern provinces , run by UAE, also witnesses a security fiasco that escalated with killings, looting issues , in addition to others that never happened before.The UAE took control of them under the pretext of confronting the so –called “Houthis” , part of the Yemeni army forces and supported the establishment and formation of armed elements there.
A few months ago, Emirati-backed forces were fighting and killing Saudi-backed forces in Aden,southern Yemen. The south is moving towards outright autonomy The entrenchment of a war economy is another significant obstacle to peace.
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