An official from the Southern Transitional Council (STC) has rejected Saudi claims that the Yemeni separatist group has been disbanded, saying such a move could not be made under “duress”.

Saudi state media said on Friday that members of the STC, the leading Yemeni southern separatist organisation, had agreed to dissolve the group.

“We announce the dissolution of the Southern Transitional Council,” read a statement by the group, which was also carried by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government’s official news agency.

The Ekhbariya TV report claimed the move had been agreed by an STC delegation in Riyadh that travelled to the Saudi capital for talks aimed at ending weeks of bloodshed and unrest in southern Yemen.

The UAE-backed leader of the STC, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, has reportedly fled Yemen and is not taking part in the talks.

Senior STC official Amr al-Bidh previously told Middle East Eye that the delegation had been put on a bus after arriving in Riyadh and were subsequently out of contact. He said they suspected the delegates’ phones had been confiscated.

On Friday, Mohamed Alsahimi, the STC’s representative to the UK, denied to MEE that the group had been disbanded, saying that this would require both the approval of the council and Zubaidi, whom Saudi Arabia has accused of fleeing to Abu Dhabi via Somaliland with Emirati help.

Alsahimi added that the delegation in Riyadh was effectively being held in detention by the Saudis, having lost contact with them on Wednesday.

“This can not be done under duress. This will be done when the STC delegation in Riyadh is released,” Alsahimi said.

“We will engage constructively with all political initiatives to allow the south to determine its future.”

‘This can not be done under duress. This will be done when the STC delegation in Riyadh is released’

– Mohamed Alsahimi, STC representative in UK

Another STC spokesman, the Abu Dhabi-based Anwar al-Tamimi, told AFP the announcement from Riyadh was “ridiculous”.

The STC has seen its power evaporate in southern Yemen over the past week, even losing control of its erstwhile stronghold of Aden.

Saudi-backed forces entered the Aden governorate on Wednesday and the local Giants Brigades seized control of the city, pledging allegiance to the STC’s rivals and flying the national flag of Yemen on official buildings for the first time in years.

The Saudi defence minister, Khalid bin Salman Al Saud, praised the STC members in Riyadh on Friday, describing their decision as “brave”.

At the same time, the Saudi-backed forces in Yemen said they would be lifting a curfew that had been imposed on Aden.

The Saudi defence minister said an upcoming conference to determine the fate of southern Yemen would include members of all southern groups, “without exclusion or discrimination”.

“The decision taken by the southern figures and leaderships to dissolve the STC was a brave decision intent on the future of the southern cause and an encouragement for the participation of the rest of the sons of the south in the Riyadh Conference in service of their cause,” he wrote on X.