Dubai: Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces are close to a deal that would end a power struggle in the southern port of Aden and see Saudi forces take temporary control of the city, three sources familiar with the negotiations said.
Saudi Arabia, leader of an Arab coalition battling Yemen’s Al Houthi movement, has been hosting indirect talks for a month between the government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the STC to end the stand-off that had opened a new front in the multi-faceted war.
STC is part of Saudi-led Arab alliance that intervened in Yemen in March 2015 to restore Hadi’s internationally-recognised government after it was ousted from power in the capital, Sana’a, by Al Houthis.
But STC forces turned on the government in August and seized its interim seat of Aden.
STC forces tried to extend their reach in the south, clashing with government forces in violence that risked further fragmenting the Arabian Peninsula nation and complicating United Nations peace efforts.
Two Yemeni government officials told Reuters that Saudi Arabia submitted a proposal to include the STC in Hadi’s government, while Saudi troops would deploy in Aden to oversee formation of a neutral security force in the city.
“There is progress in the Jeddah talks. The conversation is still ongoing and it is about bringing STC into the government, de-escalating tensions and redeployment of forces,” a third source familiar with the talks said on Monday.
The STC’s Security Belt forces tweeted on Monday that an agreement could be signed in Jeddah in the next few days.
The third source said resolving the Aden stand-off, which had fractured the Western-backed coalition, was needed before the coalition officially responded to an Al Houthi offer to halt missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities if the alliance did the same.
