Tom,

Thank you for being so informative on the situation in the whole of the Yemen.

This sentence reminded me of a couple of factors:
On the contrary, the Emiratis intensified their cooperation with the southerners, foremost the separatists and the Hadramawt Confederation.
There is a "kith & kin" link between the Gulf states that dates back a long time, I understand it was based on commercial and trading links. This was reinforced in 1967 when the UK left Aden and "up country", many of the traditional leaders in the Hadramawt and elsewhere fled to the Gulf. At least one senior UAE official is from the Hadramawt.

I do wonder if these leaders ever returned, either when the Communist regime ended or later.

Dr Elisabeth Kendall @ Pembroke College, Oxford University is a regular visitor to the Yemen, including long term access to the Hadramawt. To see her publications dip into:https://oxford.academia.edu/ElisabethKendall and her slim bio:

In she wrote a 14 pgs. paper 'Iran’s Fingerprints in Yemen' in October 2017 for the Atlantic Council and concluded:
a conflict that began essentially as a politically and tribally motivated dispute over territory, resources and power may yet over time turn into a long-term cycle of bloody sectarian violence. In this respect, the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen is – to some extent – helping to exacerbate the very problem it claimed to be designed to solve.
Link:http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/image...n_web_1019.pdf

Would a semi-independent South Yemen, following the Somaliland model, really be that bad for the people? It might suit the diplomats and outsiders, but on reflection have they really helped the people that much for many years?