A shutdown of Aden airport was ordered by the transportation minister in the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) that runs southern Yemen, a Saudi source told Reuters on Thursday.

A shutdown of Aden airport was ordered by the transportation minister in the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) that runs southern Yemen, a Saudi source told Reuters on Thursday.

The minister shut down air traffic in defiance of an order by the Saudi-backed government to impose targeted restrictions on flights to and from the UAE's Abu Dhabi and Dubai to curb escalating tensions in the country, the source said.

Saudi Arabia laying down gauntlet

This comes after Saudi Arabia laid down a gauntlet over Yemen when it carried out airstrikes on vehicles that it said had been smuggled to Mukalla Port from the United Arab Emirates on December 31.

Riyadh said that recent gains by the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen in the past weeks were approaching a red line. Saudi Arabia called out the UAE by name in an unusual type of dispute in the Gulf.

The Gulf is usually conservative in its policies, and its countries don’t like to argue. There are exceptions, such as when Riyadh led a number of countries to cut ties with Qatar in 2017.