Yemen's head of UN-backed government urges separatists to pull back from recently-seized areas

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CAIRO (AP) — The head of Yemen's internationally recognized government called on separatists on Thursday to withdraw from territories they they have recently captured in the southeastern parts of the country, according to the government-run news agency.

The secessionist Southern Transitional Council, STC, a group backed by the United Arab Emirates, this month seized most of the the provinces of Hadramout and Mahra, including oil facilities. The move raised fears that the relative calm in the country's stalemated civil war might be shattered.

Rashad al-Alimi, chair of the country's Presidential Leadership Council, the ruling organ of the internationally recognized government, said that separatists must hand over power to local authorities, warning of more bloodshed, according to the official SABA news agency.

Al-Alimi said that priority should be given to the fight against the Houthi rebels, who have controlled the country's north and the capital, Sanaa, for more than a decade.

Since 2014, Yemen has been embroiled in a civil war pitting the Iran-backed Houthis against an internationally recognized government, which is supported by a Saudi-led military coalition. The separatist Southern Transitional Council is part of the anti-Houthi camp, but it seeks an independent state in southern Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has sent a delegation to Harramout to meet with the province’s governor and other political and tribal leaders in efforts to tamp down tensions.

Alimin also warned of the economic repercussions of STC “unilateral moves” on the Arab world's poorest country, adding that the International Monetary Fund has decided to suspend its activities aimed at stabilizing Yemen's fragile economy following the tension in the South.

In the meantime, the STC, along with other allied groups, issued a statement on Thursday expressing its adamancy not to budge and calling on regional and international partners to recognize the right of southern Yemenis to have their own state.

“We are holding onto the legitimate right of our people to regain their fully independent and sovereign state. We are demanding the declaration of a southern federal state,” according to the statement posted on the STC official website and signed by 29 political factions.

The STC is the most powerful group in southern Yemen, with crucial financial and military support from the UAE. It was established in April 2017 as an umbrella organization for groups that seek to restore South Yemen as an independent state, as it was between 1967 and 1990.