Shabwa (Debriefer) Shabwa is still witnessing military tension between the UN-recognized government and Emirati-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC), with coalition warplanes intensely hovering over the Yemeni southeastern governorate.
A Saudi military mediation arrived in Shabwa on Sunday in a bid to defuse the ongoing tension and prevent looming confrontations.
Later on Sunday, Shabwa governor told a Saudi mediation – at a meeting in a government-held military base near Balhaf – that the Emirati troops need to leave Balhaf gas facility soon, advisor to Shabwa governor said.
"The Saudi mediation panel asked for a two-month respite until certain arrangements are made with Emirates to pull out its troops stationed in the gas facility," Muhsin al-Haj.
Late on Saturday, the Yemeni government army deployed a set of patrols in the vicinity of Balhaf strategic seaport, in Shabwa, which is controlled by Emirati and local troops backed by Abu Dhabi.
Through mediations, the government troops ask for erections recently made inside the facility be removed, and for Emirati-backed troops deployed in Balhaf be withdrawn, a local official told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on condition of anonymity.
Since Saturday, Emirati warplanes have hovering over Balhaf, "in an attempt to terrify army troops that cordoned the facility in order to protect and recover it from Emirati forces," the governor advisor said.
Despite these sorties, the government troops will not withdraw from the area before the Emirati forces are pulled out of Balhaf facility, he added.
Government security forces arrested a number of STC militiamen that were deployed by Abu Dhabi in the gas facility, to train them and reinforce its forces present in Balhaf, al-Haj said.
The United Arab Emirates, cofounder of the Saudi-led coalition, "widely uses misinformation on its troop withdrawal from Yemen," he added, as these "troops are still there in many Yemeni provinces.. and hundreds of Emirati officers are present in Balhaf facility."
Last Tuesday, Shabwa governor called on the UAE to quit transforming Yemen's resources into rebellion centers.
"Balhaf gas exportation facility should be a lifeline for the people in this hard time," Governor Mohamed Edio said in press release, as export revenues would "rescue the national currency and economy."
