The United Arab Emirates has agreed to re-enter the Yemen conflict. The UAE will be resuming payments to some of the forces fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in the south, according to a report in the Guardian yesterday, that quotes sources in Yemen to that effect. In return, Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide air cover for the anti-Houthi force. The UAE withdrew from Yemen last January, after clashing with the Saudis over Abu Dhabi’s support for the southern secessionists.

Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE has responded to a demand this week by southern Yemen separatists for a referendum on secession, a move that would restore the 1967-1990 borders, when Yemen was two separate states, the Guardian reports further. The separatist Southern Transitional Council has also not yet agreed for its troops to fight outside the borders of the old Southern Yemen, but an explicit agreement by Saudi Arabia to allow a referendum would be likely to lead to the lifting of that restriction.