Minister Khaled Al-Yamani linked the participation of southern forces in military confrontations and in shaping a political settlement to recognition of the demand for southern independence. He said these forces were ready to bear the cost of fighting and protect their territory and the waterways, while rejecting their exclusion from political arrangements concerning Yemen’s future.
Al-Yamani traces the demand for southern independence
In a televised interview, Al-Yamani said the people of the south were not acting in response to what he described as “the instincts of others”, but according to their needs and their vision for their children’s future. He added that the call for independence was not a product of current developments, but dated back to 1994, when the unity failed—a unity he said some now wanted to restore for southerners.
He stressed that the southerners’ current message was no different from their previous positions, noting that Southern Transitional Council President Aidarous Al-Zoubaidi had clearly declared their readiness to bear the cost in blood and to stand firm. He said southern fighters had not fled the fronts or surrendered them, comparing this with what he said had happened in Al-Jawf and was happening in Taiz and other areas.
Al-Yamani accused the Muslim Brotherhood, which he said controlled the government, of being responsible for the retreat on some fronts. He made the accusations while presenting the Transitional Council’s view of the performance of government forces and the course of the confrontation with the Houthis. Al-Yamani stressed that the south was ready to carry out its military and political role, but would not accept being excluded from “engineering the political settlement”.
The constitutional declaration on the partnership table
We are not asking for much; we are asking for our right to independence, that the constitutional declaration
He said the Transitional Council was offering what he described as a genuine partnership, while referring to defeats suffered by the legitimacy authorities based outside the country. Al-Yamani said the rallies held in the southern provinces reflected the participants’ commitment to moving towards independence, as well as their readiness to protect their territory from any Houthi attempt to enter it. He added that the Houthis knew the capabilities of southern fighters when it came to combat.
Southern forces set limits on their participation
Speaking about the significance of the timing of the movements, Al-Yamani recalled what Al-Zoubaidi had said about the similarity between the region’s current circumstances and those preceding the 14 October 1963 Revolution. He said southerners were experiencing, in the words of the Transitional Council president, “the labour pains of the second revolution” and a phase of pursuing “the second independence”. Al-Yamani stressed that southern forces would defend their territory, but “would not fight other people’s battles”.
In this context, he compared the southern forces, which he described as limited in number relative to the forces in the north, with the latter’s performance over the past years. He said the southern forces had stood firm and managed to liberate Aden in 2015 and Mukalla in 2016, then took part in operations to retake areas of the western coast, reaching the outskirts of Hudaydah.
He added that they had been “within a stone’s throw” of entering the city, but for the intervention of the international community and forces he described as suspicious. By contrast, Al-Yamani said the northern forces had not fought a decisive battle and accused them of handing over positions and fronts. He said they had reached the outskirts of Sana’a in 2015 and then surrendered it, before returning to the vicinity of Marib, while the Houthis, he said, had reached the outskirts of Marib and Taiz and entered some of the latter’s neighbourhoods.
He also accused forces affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and some parties involved in the legitimacy project of not wanting to defeat the Houthis, and even of colluding with them. These accusations remain part of Al-Yamani’s account of developments on the fronts and the reasons for the retreat of government forces.
Accusations of marginalising the southern forces’ gains on the fronts
Asked about crowd statements referring to “stealing victories”, amid confusion between the southern Giants Brigades and government forces, Al-Yamani said there had been an attempt to attribute the retaking of strategic positions in the Bab al-Mandab area to parties other than the southern forces. He added that linking those operations to government forces did not, in his view, reflect their actual presence on the Taiz fronts.
He said these forces had withdrawn and handed over a number of fronts, some in agreement with the Houthis and others through retreat, noting that reports had circulated about an intention to hand over the remaining territory. Al-Yamani considered the motives of some parties in the war to be linked to interests and what he called “spoils”, rather than identity or ideology.
By contrast, he said the southern fighter entered battles carrying the southern flag and a picture of Al-Zoubaidi because he possessed an identity and a fighting doctrine that, in his view, the other side lacked. Regarding relations with Saudi Arabia, Al-Yamani said talk of Riyadh considering Al-Zoubaidi’s appearance a “red line” had not come from official Saudi sources, but had instead been circulated by activists.
He stressed that the south was extending its hand to the kingdom and that southern fighters had been “honest soldiers at the decisive moment”. He pointed to intense pressure on the internal fronts, linked to the contraction of the fighting lines and what he described as the collusion of those in charge of them in the north with the Houthis. He noted that the same accusation of collusion had long been levelled at the Southern Transitional Council.
He said Al-Zoubaidi had declared the southern forces’ readiness to fight alongside Riyadh to restore the state and achieve stability in the north. But he stressed that this participation had a price: the south’s independence and freedom. He emphasised that there was no hostility towards Saudi Arabia, which he described as a pivotal state with intertwined interests with the south.
Al-Yamani pledged the south’s commitment before the regional and international communities to protecting the waterways and Bab al-Mandab, and combating piracy and all forms of terrorism. He listed among the parties he said the southern forces were ready to fight the Muslim Brotherhood and the organisations Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, asking what more the international community could demand than these commitments.
He called for recognition of what he described as the southerners’ right, and of the roadmap contained in the constitutional declaration and political statement issued by the Transitional Council last January. He also reaffirmed the southern forces’ readiness to continue the battle “until victory”. Regarding the internal front, Al-Yamani acknowledged disagreements among southerners over political approaches, but said these differences did not extend to the goal of independence.
He described the Transitional Council as a “formidable force” whose role could not be ended “with a stroke of a pen”, considering it representative of southerners. Al-Yamani rejected excluding Al-Zoubaidi or entertaining claims that southerners did not want him, describing him as a “fierce fighter” for the second independence.
He concluded by stressing that the southerner could not be bought or removed from his political doctrine because, in his words, he represented an integrated system of doctrine, identity and belonging.
