Determined Efforts to Secure Acquisition: Abu Dhabi’s Eye on Aden Ports

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The UAE is once again attempting to control the fate of Aden ports, which compete with Dubai Ports and Jebel Ali Port, through its loyal factions in Yemen, particularly the “Southern Transitional Council” led by Aidarus al-Zoubaidi. This attempt is the first since the cancellation of the partnership agreement between “Dubai Ports” and the “Aden Port Development Corporation” at the end of September 2012, under Yemeni public pressure. However, it is now more dangerous as the “Abu Dhabi Ports Group,” which is negotiating the deal, has entered through al-Zoubaidi, in his capacity as Vice President of the “Presidential Leadership Council” and the dominant force in Aden. “Al-Akhbar” obtained a copy of a document from al-Zoubaidi to the Prime Minister of the Saudi-Emirati coalition government, Ahmed bin Mubarak, urging him to facilitate the process of handing over Aden Port to the UAE, and to expedite negotiations with the aforementioned group and the “Aden Port Development Corporation.”

The document confirmed that the previous government, led by Maeen Abdulmalik, who was dismissed earlier this year, had made significant progress in negotiations with the UAE side and had formed a special ministerial committee for this purpose. The deal was close to being finalized early this year.

The renewal of these negotiations has sparked a wave of Yemeni public outrage against the UAE, reminiscent of the practices of “Dubai Ports,” which exploited a previous agreement signed with the Yemeni government in 2005 to systematically destroy Aden ports, leading to a significant decline in their activities.

Opponents consider that the UAE is using the “Transitional Council” to complete the destruction mission. A Yemeni diplomatic source informed “Al-Akhbar” that the UAE summoned bin Mubarak to Abu Dhabi last month regarding the prospective partnership deal. Bin Mubarak, who appeared in the UAE capital at the inauguration of a hotel owned by a Yemeni investor, sought to obscure the hidden agendas of the visit. The source pointed out that the Minister of Transport in Aden’s government, a leader in the “Transitional Council,” Abdul Salam Hamid, heads the negotiation committee with the “Abu Dhabi Ports Group,” and confirmed that signing the vague agreement is inevitable unless stopped by pro-Saudi members in the government and the “Presidential Leadership Council.” Government sources also told “Al-Akhbar” that the “Transitional Council’s” attempts to control the “Aden Port Development Corporation” last month were part of preparations for the deal.

Commenting on this, the head of the political bureau of the “Southern Movement Council,” Abdul Wali Al-Subaihi, accused the UAE of exploiting Yemen’s political, military, and economic divisions to gain more advantages, whether through its loyal militias controlling the vital Balhaf Port, the most important Yemeni port for exporting and liquefying natural gas, or the Dabba oil port on the Mukalla coast in Hadhramaut Governorate, or the ports of Mocha, Socotra, and Mahra. After the UAE, through the “Transitional Council,” took control of the Qishn Port on the Arabian Sea coast in Mahra Governorate last year through a deal with the Aden government to invest in the port for over 25 years, Al-Subaihi held the “Presidential Leadership Council” and its government fully responsible if any partnership deal with the Abu Dhabi group is finalized.

Signing the agreement is inevitable unless stopped by pro-Saudi members in the government and the ‘Presidential Leadership Council.’

Yemenis’ resistance to the UAE’s return to managing Aden ports stems from the destructive practices carried out by “Dubai Ports Company,” which managed Aden ports for seven years. The UAE neglected the development of these ports during the partnership agreement period between 2005 and 2012 and reneged on all its commitments, which were estimated at about $850 million.

According to the agreement, the first phase of development was to start immediately at a cost of $200 million, including expanding container storage space, purchasing and installing gantry cranes and mobile equipment for container handling, providing and installing an electronic system for the terminal, and paving the container yard to increase capacity from 50,000 to 900,000 containers annually. It also involved designing and constructing a 400-meter berth with a depth of at least 17 meters to accommodate large container ships, installing gantry cranes, mobile cranes, tractors, and all necessary equipment for container handling to prepare for increasing terminal capacity to 1.8 million containers annually.

“Dubai Ports” also committed to implementing the second phase of development worth $650 million, starting once the terminal’s capacity reached 70%, to create a 900-meter berth, providing five additional berths with a depth of 18 meters, and installing all cranes and equipment to operate the berth, aiming to increase capacity to between 3.5 million and 5.5 million containers annually.

The company also promised to continue expansion stages as traffic increased, but it destroyed all previous port equipment, caused several global shipping lines to stop operations, dismissed port workers, and refused to pay their salaries. After seven years, negotiations in Istanbul led to the termination of the partnership under the pressure of the 2011 uprising, one of whose demands was the liberation of Aden ports. “Dubai Ports” was compensated $23 million, and the partnership was officially dissolved.

Source: Lebanese Newspaper “Al-Akhbar”