DUBAI – In a significant development, a council opposing Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced on Wednesday that it had expelled the leader of a separatist faction, accusing him of treason. This move followed his reported refusal to attend talks in Saudi Arabia.

The announcement, made through the SABA news agency, which is aligned with anti-Houthi forces, marks a fresh escalation between Saudi-backed troops and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), previously supported by the United Arab Emirates. This development adds another layer of complexity to the situation in Yemen, already burdened by over a decade of conflict, making it one of the poorest countries in the Arab world.

The STC revealed that its leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, has remained in Aden. Additionally, the council accused Saudi Arabia of conducting airstrikes in Yemen’s al-Dhale governorate, resulting in casualties.

“While a senior STC delegation is currently in Saudi Arabia to engage in negotiations, the President remains in Aden to ensure the safety and stability of the region,” stated Amr al-Bidh, an STC official handling foreign affairs. “He is committed to his people and will participate directly in talks when conditions permit.”

The SABA statement accused al-Zubaidi of “undermining the republic’s military, political, and economic status,” and of “forming an armed group responsible for the killing of officers and soldiers in the armed forces.”

The anti-Houthi leadership group is known as the Presidential Leadership Council. That council formed in April 2022 after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen’s internationally recognized government stepped down.

But its members all had competing interests and backers, with their forces never taking the fight to the Houthis even after both the United States and Israel launched massive bombing campaigns targeting the rebels. An uneasy ceasefire between the combatants on the ground in Yemen has held for years.

In late December, tensions began over the STC’s advances in the governorates of Hadramout and Mahra, which were once held by Saudi-backed forces.

An earlier statement Wednesday from Maj. Gen, Turki al-Malki, a spokesperson for a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said al-Zubaidi, had been due to take a flight to Saudi Arabia but did not take the flight with other council officials.

“The legitimate government and the coalition received intelligence indicating that al-Zubaidi had moved a large force —including armored vehicles, combat vehicles, heavy and light weapons, and ammunition,” al-Malki said. Al-Zubaidi “fled to an unknown location.”

Saudi Arabia in recent weeks has bombed STC positions and struck what is said was a shipment of Emirati weapons. After Saudi pressure and an ultimatum from anti-Houthi forces to withdraw from Yemen, the UAE said Saturday it had withdrawn its forces.

The tensions in Yemen have further strained ties between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, neighbors on the Arabian Peninsula that have competed over economic issues and regional politics.

Ostensibly, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have shared the coalition’s professed goal of fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have held Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, since 2014.

Yemen, on the southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula off East Africa, borders the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The war there has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.

The Houthis, meanwhile, have launched attacks on hundreds of ships in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, disrupting regional shipping. The U.S., which earlier praised Saudi-Emirati efforts to end the crisis over the separatists, has launched airstrikes against the rebels under Presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

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Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.