Yemen: Balhaf, Operation Shabwa, Total SA and France… A dirty game

Over the past few years, the United Arab Emirates has been pursuing a plethora of agendas in Southern Yemen, whether directly or via backing the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC). Among Abu Dhabi’s primary objectives in Yemen are taking control of the country’s western coasts in the Red Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb, a strait located between Yemen, Djibouti and Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, and Socotra, an archipelago near major shipping routes are. But this hegemonic ambition has never been in the shape of taking strategic locations alone. The story of Balhaf is a case in point; a major oil…