Fragile Truce in Yemen After Separatist Soldiers Capture Presidential Palace

Fragile Truce in Yemen After Separatist Soldiers Capture Presidential Palace by Sune Engel Rasmussen and Saleh al-Batati - Wall Street Journal

An uneasy truce took hold in Aden on Sunday after four days of fighting over control of the southern Yemeni city, as the unrest threatens to unravel international attempts to stabilize the country and further splits a U.S.-backed anti-Iran coalition there.

Separatists, who are supported by the United Arab Emirates, are leading demands for the re-establishment of an independent southern Yemeni state, and on Saturday captured the presidential palace in Aden. But they also form part of a Saudi-led coalition, supported by Washington, which props up the government the fighters seek to topple.

While the separatists have fought alongside President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s government forces against Iranian-allied Houthi rebels, their rival agendas for Yemen have often led to clashes and prolonged a war that has spurred the world’s worst humanitarian crisis…

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