...The incorporation of forces affiliated with the Islah (Reform) party and the resumption of efforts led by Yemeni Vice President Field Marshal Ali Mohsen al Ahmar have pressured al Houthi positions on the eastern front line. The UAE shifted its position on the Islah party, which includes members of the Muslim Brotherhood, on December 13, to pull Islah into the anti-al Houthi alliance. Islahis had been meeting with al Houthi officials during the fall likely because of the anti-Islah position the Emiratis held. Islah-affiliated troops, along with the 19th infantry, 21st mechanized, and 26th infantry brigades and southern militias, helped coalition-backed forces seize a strategic road linking eastern and northern Yemen in Bayhan district in Shabwah governorate. Ali Mohsen’s forces seized the primary road connecting Sa’ada and al Jawf governorates, northern Yemen in early December and are continuing an offensive to establish a foothold in northern Sa’ada . Ali Mohsen pledged to advance his forces toward Sana’a after Saleh defected from the al Houthi movement but has yet to make any significant gains.
Emirati-backed Yemeni forces, supported by Yemeni military units previously commanded by Ahmed Saleh, are advancing north along the Red Sea coastline toward al Hudaydah port. Former Republican Guard units joined Emirati and Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi government-aligned forces to help break a nearly yearlong stalemate on Yemen’s western coast. The new offensive aims to seize al Hudaydah port, a critical supply hub for the al Houthis, in order to isolate the al Houthi positions in Yemen. Ahmed Saleh, whom Hadi had appointed ambassador to the UAE, has been in talks with the Emiratis since the crisis began. The Emiratis may see Ahmed Saleh as his father’s successor and could be positioning him to assume the leadership of his father’s party, the General People’s Congress (GPC). The UAE has been involved in internal GPC talks after Ali Abdullah Saleh’s death.
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