News – Yemen: Several Yemeni writers, analysts, and officials have warned that the escalating tensions in Hadramawt and Al-Mahrah are part of a coordinated distraction campaign designed to divert Yemen’s attention and military focus, paving the way for a potential Israeli enemy-led escalation against the country.

Journalist and writer Mahfouz Nasser said developments in Hadramawt and Al-Mahrah over recent weeks reveal a deliberate path of distraction and engagement, aimed at drawing Yemen and its Armed Forces away from their core tasks in the free governorates. Speaking to Al-Masirah TV, Nasser cited confirmed information from multiple sources indicating Zionist warnings and preparations for an aggression targeting free Yemeni areas, arguing that the current escalation in Hadramawt and Al-Mahrah fits this context as a tool of confusion and dispersion.

Nasser stressed that the Saudi–Emirati dispute is limited to details and mechanisms, while their shared strategic objective remains the same: domination over Yemen’s resources, wealth, and sovereign decision-making, including oil, gas, gold, ports, airports, and maritime corridors. He said the so-called Southern Transitional Council (STC) is an Emirati security creation, adding that any genuine Saudi confrontation with this track would amount to a clash with the Israeli enemy, the US, and Britain—making current events closer to an exchange of roles than a real conflict.

Former Tourism Minister Ahmed Al-Eliy echoed these warnings, saying Saudi Arabia could end the chaos in Hadramawt with a single phone call to the UAE if it were genuinely serious about de-escalation. In remarks to Al-Masirah, Al-Eliy described the recent Saudi airstrikes on positions of the Hadrami Elite militia as part of a new phase of organized escalation, preparing the ground for a broader round of conflict in Hadramawt and Al-Mahrah in particular.

He said dragging these previously stable governorates into internal fighting serves a wider regional project led by the US, Britain, and the Israeli enemy, and implemented on the ground by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, intending to fragment the region from within under misleading slogans.

Al-Eliy noted that Hadramawt and Al-Mahrah had remained largely outside direct fighting since the start of the war on Yemen, maintaining social cohesion and relative stability. He said coalition forces deliberately worked to undermine this reality by creating and funding militias with conflicting loyalties, fostering division, hatred, and internal strife.

He dismissed Saudi statements calling for de-escalation as lacking credibility, stressing that the absence of concrete steps proves a clear integration of roles between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi rather than a divergence of agendas. According to Al-Eliy, Saudi Arabia seeks direct control over Hadramawt and Al-Mahrah, while the UAE focuses on entrenching its militias across southern governorates.

For his part, Mohammed Taher Anam, adviser to Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, said the unfolding developments in the eastern governorates expose a direct Saudi–Emirati struggle over Yemeni wealth, particularly in Hadramawt and Shabwah. He said the alliance announced in 2015 has effectively collapsed, turning into fierce competition over oil and gas fields stretching from Al-Jawf and Marib to Shabwah, Hadramawt, and Al-Mahrah.

Anam accused Riyadh and Abu Dhabi of misleading Yemenis for years with claims of restoring “legitimacy,” which is a cover for plundering Yemen’s oil and gas resources. He warned that Saudi air sorties and military interventions in Hadramawt and Al-Mahrah constitute a blatant violation of Yemen’s sovereignty, stressing that Sana’a records every such strike as direct aggression.

He also pointed to the UAE’s deeper alignment with Israeli enemy projects in the region, citing its support for separatist schemes and long-term destabilization efforts. Anam reiterated Yemen’s commitment to expelling all foreign forces from occupied governorates and rejecting any Saudi or Emirati interference in Yemeni affairs.

Since the launch of the Saudi-led war on Yemen in 2015, eastern and southern governorates—particularly Hadramawt, Al-Mahrah, and Shabwah—have increasingly become arenas of competition between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi over strategic positioning and access to oil, gas, ports, and maritime routes.

In recent months, internal clashes, military buildups, and airstrikes among coalition-backed factions have intensified, exposing deep fractures within the alliance. These tensions coincide with broader US and Israeli enemy efforts to counter Yemen’s declared support for Palestine, Gaza, and Al-Quds.

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