Mukalla, Yemen – Yemen’s UAE-backed separatists on Friday announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state after their forces seized large areas of the country’s south.
“This constitutional declaration shall be considered immediately and directly effective before that date if the call is not heeded or if the people of the South, their land, or their forces are subjected to any military attacks,” Alzubidi said.
SCT forces seized large swathes of Yemen’s south, run by a fractious government with competing agendas, in a lightning and largely unopposed offensive last month.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced the government out of the country’s north in 2014, prompting a vain military intervention by the Saudi-led coalition.
