WEB DESK
A Saudi-led coalition involved in a years-long war in Yemen today urged Emirati-backed southern separatists to honour terms of a Riyadh peace deal and return control of the port city of Aden to the country’s internationally recognized government.
The statement by Saudi Arabia comes after the separatists’ Southern Transitional Council again claimed sole control of Aden, a Red Sea port that serves as the seat of the internationally recognized government as Yemen’s Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, hold the country’s capital, Sanaa. The council’s decision adds yet more complexity to the grinding war in Yemen that has pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of famine and killed over 1,00,000 people.
In its statement, Saudi urged the council to return to the terms of the November 2019 Riyadh Agreement, which ended earlier fighting between the separatists and the government forces after the council seized control of Aden just a few months earlier.