Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) (AFP) – The Saudi-led coalition warned Saturday it would back Yemen’s government in any military confrontation with separatist forces and urged them to withdraw “peacefully” from recently-seized provinces.

The statements came a day after reported Saudi air strikes on separatist positions in Yemen’s Hadramawt province – and after Washington called for restraint in the rapidly escalating conflict.

General Turki al-Malki, the spokesman for the coalition, said they would act “directly and at the appropriate moment… to protect civilian life”, according to the Saudi news agency SPA.

Saudi Defence Minister Khalid bin Salman posted on X that troops from the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) should “peacefully hand over” two regional governorates to the government.

“It’s time,” he posted, “at this sensitive moment, to let reason prevail by withdrawing from the two provinces and doing so peacefully.”

The STC had warned on Friday that they were undeterred after strikes blamed on Saudi Arabia hit their positions, in the latest escalation since they seized large swathes of territory in the Hadramawt and Mahrah provinces.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the strikes.

In recent weeks, separatists backed by the United Arab Emirates and seeking to revive the formerly independent state of South Yemen have made territorial gains.

On Saturday, hundreds of Yemeni tribesmen gathered in Aden to ask the STC’s leaders to announce the independence of South Yemen, according to the separatist-affiliated Aden Independent Channel.

The channel aired footage of a large crowd marching and waving the South Yemen independence flag alongside the UAE’s flag.

Experts say their successes have embarrassed regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, the main backer of the internationally-recognised Yemeni government.

Farea al-Muslimi, from the Chatham House think tank in London, told AFP that the STC had crossed Riyadh’s “red lines” and that the situation could quickly get worse.

“It is one bad thing to humiliate Saudi Arabia. And it is another much worse thing to humiliate Saudi Arabia publicly. And that’s exactly what they did,” he said.

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