The flare-up in fighting between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a separatist force backed by the UAE, has exposed the country’s internal vulnerabilities and the Persian Gulf region’s geopolitical fault lines. It gained control of nearly half of the former South Yemen state, but the advances were short-lived. On January 7, government forces entered Aden, forcing the STC to send a delegation to Riyadh for talks. Following a rare public rebuke from Saudi Arabia, the UAE announced its withdrawal of forces from Yemen and an end to its “counterterrorism operations”. Saudi Arabia, facing a direct security threat from the Houthis along its southern borders, entered into a ceasefire with the group, and sought to stabilise southern Yemen through the government.

Source: The Hindu January 20, 2026 01:25 UTC