2:07 AM
Gap Widening between UAE, Saudi Arabia over Yemen, Emirati Jets Hit Pro-Saudi Camp in Lahij
The UAE warplanes' raid on pro-Saudi militia
targets in Lahij came just one day after Saudi fighter jets in a similar
move pounded a UAE military convoy, killing two UAE military
servicemen.
The differences between the UAE and Saudi Arabia
in Yemen have heightened after the UAE replaced its soldiers with
Blackwater mercenaries which faced the stern oppositions of the Riyadh
government.
As a result, fugitive President Mansour Hadi and
his Prime Minister Khaled Bahah have been running a feud for the past
several months, and their differences grew noisy when a number of Saudi
officials worked out a plan to replace the former president with his
premier - who had both fled to Saudi Arabia then - in order to encourage
the revolutionary forces back in Yemen to work with him and allow him
to start a new government.
Political observers believe that the quarrel
between Hadi and his prime minister derives from the underlying row
between Saudi Arabia as supporter of Hadi and UAE as supporter of Bahah.
Meantime, Lahij and Aden provinces have been the
scenes of numerous attacks against pro-Hadi forces; the latest case was
assassination of Aden governor Ja'afar Saeed.
In a relevant development in late December, Hadi's
palace in Aden came under siege by his opponents, forcing him to flee
Yemen to Saudi Arabia again.
A newly-formed militant group calling itself
'Southern Yemen's Resistance Forces' had besieged Hadi's place of
residence in Aden, Arab media outlets reported on December 23.
Political analysts speculate that the siege of
Hadi's palace had taken place with the green light of the United Arab
Emirates as a result of a row between the UAE and Saudi Arabia over Hadi
and his prime minister.
The speculations came as the UAE Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Zayed had met the leaders of Southern Yemen, including a
senior Yemeni Salafi leader Hani bin Barik, in Abu Dhabi.
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