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Saudi-backed troops on Saturday made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi deepened a rift between the two Gulf allies.The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But a recent offensive by the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.In a statement, the military of the Saudi-aligned government announced that “all military and civilian facilities” in Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt province, had “been secured” by Riyadh-backed forces.Earlier two government military officials told AFP they had taken control of Mukalla’s principal military base. The Saudi-led coalition has launched repeated warnings and air strikes over the past week, including one on an alleged Emirati arms shipment to the STC.On Friday, a strike on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.On Saturday, a military official with the STC told AFP Saudi warplanes had carried out “intense” air strikes on another of the group’s camps at Barshid, west of Mukalla.The official said the strike had resulted in fatalities, without giving a number of those killed.Footage aired by the Aden Independent Channel showed the moment one strike hit the STC forces, igniting a massive orange fireball and sending a plume of black smoke into the sky. – ‘Retreat of forces’ -According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in Mukalla early Saturday. While residents described a security breakdown there accompanied by looting, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistance. Hani Yousef, a Mukalla resident, said he “saw retreating forces using their military vehicles to transport motorbikes and household items, including refrigerators and washing machines”.In the province’s city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official said pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday’s strikes, as well as administrative buildings.”We are working to secure them,” the military official said. The STC military official said: “There has been a retreat of our forces and we are resisting the attacking forces in Seiyun.” “We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha… as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us,” he added.Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes. – Call for dialogue -Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.  In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.Also on Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to “halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue”. The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.But he warned that the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north. But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday acknowledged the economic demands of protesters in Iran, where demonstrations have spread to more than two dozen cities, even as he warned there would be no quarter for “rioters”.The protests began on Sunday as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.”The president and high-ranking officials are working to resolve” the economic difficulties in the sanctions-battered country, Khamenei said in a speech marking a Shiite holiday.”The shopkeepers have protested against this situation and that is completely fair,” he added.But Khamenei nonetheless warned that while “authorities must have dialogue with protesters, it is useless to have dialogue with rioters. Those must be put in their place.”At least eight people have been killed in the protests so far, including members of the security services, according to official figures.The first deaths were reported on Thursday as demonstrators clashed with authorities.On Saturday, the Mehr news agency reported that a member of an Iranian paramilitary force was killed during a demonstration in the country’s west.”Ali Azizi, a member of the Basij, was martyred after being stabbed and shot in the city of Harsin during a gathering of armed rioters,” Mehr said, citing a statement from the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military that oversees the volunteer Basij force.The Tasnim news agency, citing a local official, also reported a man killed Friday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when a grenade he was trying to use exploded “in his hands”.The protests have mostly been concentrated in mid-sized cities in Iran’s west and southwest, where clashes and vandalism have been reported.At least 25 cities have seen protest gatherings of varying sizes, according to an AFP tally based on local media.However, local media do not necessarily report on every incident, and state media have downplayed coverage of protests, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.- Political demands -The Fars news agency reported gatherings on Friday in several working-class neighbourhoods of Tehran, which is home to around 10 million people.But on Saturday, a public holiday, the atmosphere in the capital appeared quiet, with streets mostly empty as the skies spat rain and snow, according to AFP journalists.In Darehshahr, in the country’s west, around 300 people blocked streets, threw molotov cocktails and “brandished Kalashnikovs” on Friday, according to Fars.The movement kicked off on Sunday when shopkeepers went on strike in Tehran to protest economic conditions, and spread after university students elsewhere in the country took up the cause.In recent days, the protests have taken on a more overtly political bent.In Karaj, on the outskirts of the capital, “a few people burned the Iranian flag, shouting ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘This isn’t the last battle, Pahlavi is coming back!'” Fars reported, adding that others in the crowd objected to the slogans.The pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979, when it was toppled by the Islamic revolution.Since the protests began, authorities have adopted a conciliatory tone when it comes to economic demands, while warning that destabilisation and chaos will not be tolerated.Though widespread, the demonstrations are smaller than the ones that broke out in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.Iran was also gripped by nationwide protests that began in late 2019 over a rise in fuel prices, eventually leading to calls to topple the country’s clerical rulers.

Saudi-backed troops on Saturday made advances in Yemen’s resource-rich Hadramawt province, military officials said, as confrontations between forces backed by Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have triggered a deep rift between the two Gulf allies.The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government. But the UAE-backed secessionist Southern Transitional Council’s recent offensive to capture Hadramawt angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich regional powers on a collision course.Following repeated warnings and air strikes, including on an alleged Emirati weapons shipment this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of attacks on Friday, including on the Al-Khasha military camp in Hadramawt that left 20 dead, according to the separatist group.Two military officials with the Saudi-aligned government told AFP on Saturday morning that Riyadh-backed forces had taken control of the principal military base in the Yemeni city of Mukalla, the capital of Hadramawt.According to an AFP journalist, gunfire could be heard in the city early Saturday and while residents described a security breakdown there, Saudi-backed forces appeared to advance with little resistence.  In the province’s city of Seiyun, 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Mukalla, a government military official said pro-Saudi forces had taken control of the airport, targeted in Friday’s strikes, as well as administrative buildings.”We are working to secure them,” the military official said. A STC military official said: “There has been a retreat of our forces and we are resisting the attacking forces in Seiyun.” “We carried out a complete withdrawal from the areas of Al-Khasha… as a result of pressure from Saudi air strikes on us,” he added. – Call for dialogue -Residents in Seiyun also said they heard gunfire and clashes early on Saturday. Saudi Arabia on Saturday called for dialogue between factions in southern Yemen.  In a statement posted to social media, the Saudi foreign ministry called for “a comprehensive conference in Riyadh to bring together all southern factions to discuss just solutions to the southern cause”.Riyadh said the Yemeni government had issued the invitation for talks.Also on Saturday, the UAE urged Yemenis to “halt escalation and resolve differences through dialogue”. The STC is now pushing to declare independence and form a breakaway state, which would split the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest state in two.On Friday the separatists announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state and said the process would include dialogue and a referendum on independence.STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.But he warned that the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.The Saudi-backed coalition was formed in 2015 in an attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels from Yemen’s north. But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place while the Saudi and Emirati-backed factions attack each other in the south.

A member of an Iranian paramilitary force was killed during a demonstration in the country’s west, the Mehr news agency reported on Saturday, the seventh day of protests that have spread to more than two dozen cities.The protests began on Sunday as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.The first deaths were reported as demonstrators clashed with authorities on Thursday, with at least eight people killed so far, including members of the security services, according to official figures.”Ali Azizi, a member of the Basij, was martyred after being stabbed and shot in the city of Harsin during a gathering of armed rioters,” Mehr said, citing a statement from the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military that oversees the volunteer Basij force.The Tasnim news agency, citing a local official, also reported a man killed Friday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when a grenade he was trying to use exploded “in his hands”.The protests have mostly been concentrated in mid-sized cities in Iran’s west and southwest, where clashes and vandalism have been reported.At least 25 cities have seen protest gatherings of varying sizes, according to an AFP tally based on local media.However, local media do not necessarily report on every incident, and state media have downplayed coverage of protests, while videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.- Political demands -The Fars news agency reported gatherings on Friday in several working-class neighbourhoods of Tehran, which is home to around 10 million people.But on Saturday, a public holiday, the atmosphere in the capital appeared quiet, with streets mostly empty as the skies spat rain and snow.In Darehshahr, in the west, around 300 people blocked streets, threw molotov cocktails and “brandished Kalashnikovs” on Friday, according to Fars.The movement kicked off on Sunday when shopkeepers went on strike in Tehran to protest economic conditions, and spread after university students elsewhere in the country took up the cause.In recent days, the protests have taken on a more overtly political bent.In Karaj, on the outskirts of the capital, “a few people burned the Iranian flag, shouting ‘Death to the dictator!’ and ‘This isn’t the last battle, Pahlavi is coming back!'” Fars reported, adding that others in the crowd objected to the slogans.The pro-Western Pahlavi dynasty ruled Iran from 1925 to 1979, when it was toppled by the Islamic revolution.Since the protests began, authorities have adopted a conciliatory tone when it comes to economic demands, while warning that destabilisation and chaos will not be tolerated.Though widespread, the demonstrations are smaller than the ones that broke out in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.Iran was also gripped by nationwide protests that began in late 2019 over a rise in fuel prices, eventually leading to calls to topple the country’s clerical rulers.

President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters, prompting Tehran to warn that intervention would destabilise the region.Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities on Thursday, with six people reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated.Shopkeepers in the capital Tehran went on strike on Sunday over high prices and economic stagnation, actions that have since spread into a protest movement that has swept into other parts of the country.Trump said on his Truth Social platform that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue”.”We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he added.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Trump’s remarks “reckless and dangerous”, and warned that the armed forces were “on standby” in the event of any intervention.The head of Iran’s top security body, Ali Larijani, warned Trump that “US interference in this internal matter would mean destabilising the entire region and destroying America’s interests”.The American people “should be mindful of their soldiers’ safety”, Larijani added on X.Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said any US intervention would “be exposed to a response”, calling Iran’s security a “red line”.Iranian leaders, including Larijani and President Masoud Pezeshkian, have in recent days said that peaceful protests over Iran’s dire economy were legitimate and understandable.Iran’s economy has been battered by years of crushing international sanctions over its nuclear programme, with raging inflation and a collapsing currency.Pezeshkian said on Thursday that from a religious perspective, he and his government would be damned to hell if they failed to address the people’s economic hardship.At the same time, officials have warned of a firm response to any instability.An Iranian police spokesman said on Friday that the authorities acknowledged that the protests “express the will of the people to improve their living conditions”.”The police clearly distinguish between the legitimate demands of the people and destructive actions… and will not permit any enemies to transform the unrest into chaos,” spokesman Said Montazeralmahdi added in a statement.The prosecutor of the district of Lorestan, where clashes took place on Thursday, was quoted on the judiciary’s Mizan website as saying: “Any participation in illegal gatherings and any action aimed at disturbing public order, destroying property, disobeying law enforcement, inciting illegal gatherings… will be treated with the greatest firmness”.UN human rights chief Volker Turk urged Iranian “authorities to uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly”.Venezuela, currently in the throes of an escalating crisis of its own with the United States, expressed concern over Trump’s “confrontational” rhetoric.”Venezuela affirms its firm solidarity with the Iranian people and government, calling for an end to interventionist stances that compromise regional stability,” Caracas said in a statement.- Battered economy -The protest movement comes as Iran has found itself weakened by major blows dealt to its regional allies in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.Iran also fought a 12-day war with Israel in June that saw the United States briefly join with strikes on nuclear sites.The protests have affected at least 20 cities to varying degrees, largely in the country’s west, according to an AFP tally based on Iranian media reports.However, local media do not necessarily report on every incident, and state media downplayed coverage of protests, while the videos flooding social media are often impossible to verify.The demonstrations are smaller than the last major round of unrest in 2022, triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women.Her death sparked a nationwide wave of anger that left several hundred people dead, including dozens of members of the security forces.Iran was also gripped by nationwide protests that began in late 2019 over a rise in fuel prices, eventually leading to calls to topple the country’s clerical rulers.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.”This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added. Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials. The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.

Yemen’s UAE-backed separatists announced a two-year transition to independence Friday despite reporting 20 deaths in airstrikes from a Saudi-led coalition trying to roll back their weeks-long offensive across the country’s south.A separatist military official and medical sources reported 20 fighters dead in air raids on two military bases as the coalition also targeted an airport and other sites.The bombardment and surprise independence bid follow weeks of tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the separatist Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) land-grab.Yemen, which was divided into North and South from 1967 to 1990, could again be split in two years if the STC’s independence plan comes to fruition. It would call the new country “South Arabia”.STC president Aidaros Alzubidi said the transitional phase would include dialogue with Yemen’s north — controlled by Iran-backed Houthi rebels — and a referendum on independence.But he warned the group would declare independence “immediately” if there was no dialogue or if southern Yemen was attacked again.”The Council calls on the international community to sponsor dialogue between the concerned parties in the South and the North,” Alzubidi said in a televised address.”This constitutional declaration shall be considered immediately and directly effective before that date (January 2, 2028) if the call is not heeded or if the people of the South, their land, or their forces are subjected to any military attacks,” he added.STC forces took much of resource-rich Hadramawt, bordering Saudi Arabia, and neighbouring Mahra province on the Omani frontier, in a largely unopposed advance last month.The Saudis and Emiratis have for years supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractured government territories. But the STC’s offensive angered Riyadh and left the oil-rich Gulf powers at loggerheads.- ‘Existential’ war -Following repeated warnings and airstrikes on an alleged UAE weapons shipment this week, the Saudi-led coalition launched a wave of attacks on Friday.Mohammed Abdulmalik, head of the STC in Wadi Hadramaut and Hadramaut Desert, said seven air strikes hit the Al-Khasha military camp.Further strikes targeted other sites in the region and the airport and military base in Seiyun, STC military sources and eyewitnesses told AFP.Reyad Khames, a resident of a village near Al-Khasha, said: “Saudi planes are chasing STC fighters. We don’t know what type of aircraft they are — we just see flashes and explosions hitting checkpoints, clearing the way for the (Saudi-backed) forces to advance.”Friday’s deaths are the first from coalition fire since the STC’s campaign began. The separatists’ military spokesman said it was in an “existential” war with Saudi-supported forces, characterising it as a fight against radical Islamism — a longtime preoccupation of the UAE.The air raids came shortly after pro-Saudi forces launched a campaign to “peacefully” take control of military sites in Hadramawt.”This operation is not a declaration of war, nor an attempt to escalate tensions,” Hadramawt governor Salem Al-Khanbashi, also leader of the province’s Saudi-backed forces, was quoted as saying by the Saba Net news agency.Saudi sources confirmed the strikes were carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, which nominally includes the UAE and was formed in 2015 in a vain attempt to dislodge the Houthi rebels in Yemen’s north.A source close to the Saudi military warned the strikes “will not stop until the Southern Transitional Council withdraws from the two governorates”.- Rival factions -The wealthy Gulf states formed the backbone of the military coalition aimed at ousting the Houthis, who forced the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014 and seized areas including most of Yemen’s population.But after a brutal, decade-long civil war, the Houthis remain in place and the Saudis and Emiratis are backing different factions in the government-held territories.Yemen’s Aden-based government comprises a fractious coalition of groups including the STC, united by their opposition to the Houthis.The UAE, which withdrew most of its troops from Yemen in 2019, pledged to pull out the remainder after Tuesday’s coalition airstrikes on an alleged weapons shipment at Mukalla port, despite denying it contained arms.On Friday, a UAE government official confirmed all troops had left, adding that Abu Dhabi “remains committed to dialogue, de-escalation, and internationally supported processes as the only sustainable path to peace”.

Iran has been rocked this week by protests that started in Tehran and have spread to other cities, with at least six people killed in clashes with security forces.Official media has largely played down the protests but videos have flooded social media, many of which are difficult to authenticate, or have even been manipulated.Here is a recap of what we know and what analysts think it all means.- What’s going on? -The protests began on Sunday in Tehran, where some shopkeepers went on strike over high prices and economic stagnation.Iran’s economy has been battered by years of crushing international sanctions over its nuclear programme, with raging inflation and a collapsing currency.By Tuesday, student protests erupted at universities in the capital Tehran and the central cities of Isfahan and Yazd. Some merchants in the capital’s bazaar joined in.Demonstrations have now affected 20 areas, mostly towns in the west of the country, according to an AFP tally of official and local Iranian media reports.In the southern city of Fasa, dozens of people protested outside a government building, lobbing projectiles and seeking to tear down its gate, according to videos posted on Wednesday, whose location AFP verified.Slogans heard at protests now include “Death to the dictator” and “Woman, Life, Freedom”, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says, citing verified videos and reports. AFP was not immediately able to authenticate these soundbites.The same chants were used in mass demonstrations after the September 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian-Kurdish woman arrested for allegedly breaching the country’s dress code for women.But authorities stamped out the 2022-2023 protests, using mass arrests and executions as part of its levers of repression, rights activists say. The system in charge since the 1979 revolution stayed in place. – What’s the context? -“The protesters are very clear in their slogans — they are not looking for reform,” said US-Iranian human rights lawyer Gissou Nia, of the Atlantic Council.They come as “the Islamic republic is dealing with a range of pressures, not only internally but also externally”, she said.Regional arch-foe Israel and the United States in June pounded Iranian nuclear sites and killed top military brass during a 12-day war.On Monday, US President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida that if Tehran rebuilt its nuclear facilities, the United States would “knock them down.”Trump said on Friday the United States was “locked and loaded” to respond if Iran killed protesters.Iran has also been weakened following major blows dealt to its regional allies, including in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.Some Iranians hold long-standing resentment that Tehran has given too much financial or military support to its regional proxies, such as Lebanese movement Hezbollah, during economic hardship at home.Iran International, a television channel based outside Iran that is critical of the authorities, has reported that recent protest slogans included “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon, my life for Iran.”- How have authorities reacted? -Protesters and security forces clashed in several Iranian cities on Thursday, with six reported killed, the first deaths since the unrest escalated.Schools, banks and public institutions were closed on Wednesday for a public holiday, with officials saying this was due to the cold weather and to save energy.But authorities have also recognised the grievances as legitimate, and announced a series of measures, including replacing the central bank governor.President Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist, said on Thursday that he and his government would “end up in hell”, in the religious sense, if they failed to address economic hardship.”The government knows that merchants are the lifeblood, the beating heart of Iran’s economy, and therefore it is obliged to take measures to address, at least partially, the big issues,” French-Iranian sociologist Azadeh Kian told AFP.But supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, has yet to speak publicly on the matter.- How big is it? -Opposition abroad have welcomed the new protests.Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s ousted shah, on X hailed 2026 as “the definitive moment for change”, while the National Council of Resistance in Iran said Iranians wanted to “free themselves from the scourge of religious tyranny”.But Kian said today’s protests were not as large-scale as previous demonstrations sparked by economic grievances, including those of 2019. They were sparked by a petrol hike, spreading to around 100 cities and towns, and left hundreds dead, according to rights groups.”I very much doubt the current rallies could bring down or overthrow the regime,” she said.Arash Azizi, a postdoctoral associate and lecturer at Yale University, said the demonstrations however remained “the most serious wave of protests since 2023″.”It is clear that with ever declining standards of living and growing discontent, (the government) will have to face periodic protests,” he said.