RIYADH: The leader of Yemen's presidential council declared a state of emergency and cancelled a security pact with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday after Abu Dhabi-backed separatists seized swathes of territory.
"The Joint Defense Agreement with the United Arab Emirates is hereby cancelled," a statement said, while a separate decree announced a 90-day state of emergency including a 72-hour air, sea and land blockade.
The announcements by Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Presidential Leadership Council, come after the Saudi-led coalition fighting in divided Yemen said it struck a UAE weapons shipment destined for the separatists.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (SCT) forces have swept through the south of Yemen this month, taking most of resource-rich Hadramawt province and swathes of neighboring Mahrah.
Alimi ordered the SCT to hand over the territory to Saudi-backed forces, calling the separatists' advance an "unacceptable rebellion" in a televised address.
The confrontation risks tearing apart the already fractured Yemeni government, which has different factions backed by oil-rich Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It also threatens slow-moving peace negotiations with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014, triggering a military intervention by the Saudi-led coalition.
The announcement comes moments after the country cancelled its defense pact with the UAE.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has declared "UAE-backed" separatists a threat to Saudi security, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressing clear disappointment and concern over Abu Dhabi’s actions.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses its disappointment with the actions taken by the brotherly United Arab Emirates,” said a statement from the Saudi foreign office, asking that "all its forces leave the Republic of Yemen within twenty-four hours."
It said the steps taken by the UAE do not serve the coalition’s purpose of achieving security and stability for Yemen, reaffirming commitment to the security, stability, and sovereignty of Yemen.
“The Southern cause is a just cause that has historical and social dimensions, and the only path to resolve it is through dialogue within a comprehensive political solution in Yemen,” the Saudi foreign office said.
“The Kingdom hopes that wisdom, the principles of brotherhood, good neighborliness, and the interest of brotherly Yemen will prevail.”
It called on the UAE to take the necessary steps to preserve bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries.
The latest developments come after the Saudi-led coalition said it targeted a large quantity of weapons and combat vehicles destined for separatist forces that were being offloaded from ships at a port in Yemen, coming from the UAE.
Yemen has been fighting a crippling war, as armed factions loosely grouped under the government and backed by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia turn on each other.
The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), which seeks to revive the formerly independent state of South Yemen, has in recent weeks swept through swathes of the country, expelling other government forces and their allies.
The Saudi-led coalition warned on Saturday that it would back Yemen's government in any military confrontation with separatist forces and has urged them to withdraw "peacefully" from recently seized provinces.
"At 4:00 am, we received a call to evacuate the port of al-Mukalla a quarter of an hour before the strike," an official at the Yemeni port told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
"The evacuation completed, and the strike occurred a quarter of an hour later in a dirt area within the port. The fire is still burning," he said.
The coalition targeted two ships carrying "a large quantity of weapons and combat vehicles to support the Southern Transitional Council forces," the state news agency, Saudi Press Agency, reported.
"Given the danger and escalation posed by these weapons... the Coalition air forces carried out a limited military operation this morning targeting weapons and combat vehicles that had been unloaded from the two ships at the port of al-Mukalla," it said.
The ships had arrived from the port of Fujairah, on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, the SPA said, adding that the operation was conducted in accordance with international humanitarian law and that no collateral damage occurred.
Aerial footage showing docked boats and a large number of vehicles driving through the port was shared by the SPA.
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