Since the Huthi (or Houthi) Zaydi movement took control of Sana'a', they have moved stedily to occupy much of what was one (before 1990) North Yemen, recently taking the port city of Hodeida and other Sunni areas.
As a result, the separatist movemnt in what was once South Yemen, al-Harik al-Jnubi ("the Southern Movement," but usually just called Harik) has been pressing for a separation. On October 14 (the date South Yemen launched its struggle against British rule in 1963) the movement held a big rally in Aden, demanding separation by November 30, the date former South Yemen won independence in 1967.
Many will recall that four years after unificatin in 1990, the former South Yemen ruling party, the once Marxist-Leninist Yemeni Socialist Partty, launched an earlier attempt at independence, resulting in a civil war that saw the rebels defeated. At that time, and despite the Marxist credentials of the YSP, the northerners claimed Saudi Arabia was arming the northerners, mostly via more conservative tribal leaders.
Saudi Arabia considers the Huthis as surrogates of Iran, so it is hardly delighted to see their ascendancy inthe North. Now it may be sending a subtle signal that it would not oppose the secessin of the South.
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