Yemeni govt, southern separatists close to deal on ending standoff – report

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government and southern separatists 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, Reuters reported, citing sources.

Saudi Arabia, leader of the Arab coalition battling Yemen’s Houthi movement, has been hosting indirect talks for a month between the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Southern Transitional Council to end the standoff that opened a new front in the multifaceted war.

Two Yemeni government officials said that Riyadh had submitted a proposal to include the STC in Hadi’s government, while Saudi troops would deploy in Aden to oversee the formation of a neutral security force in the city.

According to the third source, resolving the Aden standoff, which fractured the Western-backed coalition, is needed before the coalition officially respond to a Houthi offer to halt missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities if the alliance stops strikes on Yemen.