Exiled Yemeni cedes powers to council
SANAA, Yemen — Yemen’s exiled president stepped aside and transferred his powers to a presidential council Thursday, as international and regional efforts to end the country’s long-running civil war gained momentum with a two-month truce.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, major players in the war, appear to have had a role in President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s decision, quickly welcoming it with a pledge of $3 billion in aid. The head of the new council has close ties to Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi-led coalition of which the UAE is a member has for years been fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels to restore Hadi’s government to power.
So far, U.N. mediation efforts have not halted the warring, and fighting, airstrikes and missile attacks had been escalating in the war until the cease-fire took effect.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam dismissed any significance of the new council. The rebels have in the past benefited from squabbles among their rivals.
“Our Yemeni people are not concerned with any illegitimate decisions made by illegitimate parties beyond their borders,” Abdul-Salam tweeted.
Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, described the power transfer as the “most consequential shift in the inner workings of the anti-Houthi bloc since war began.”
Hadi, 76, said the newly established council will run the government and lead negotiations with the Houthis, according to a statement.
The development could unify the anti-Houthi camp after years of infighting and disputes. Yemen’s pro-government and pro-Saudi factions have been meeting in Riyadh over the past week to discuss efforts to end the war.
“I irreversibly delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council my full powers,” Hadi declared. He also sacked Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful military figure, and delegated al-Ahmar’s powers to the presidential council.
The council is chaired by Rashad al-Alimi, an advisor to Hadi and former interior minister with the government of late President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Al-Alimi enjoys close ties with Saudi Arabia and the powerful Islah party — Yemen’s branch of the transnational Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood.
Yemen’s civil war started in 2014, when the Houthis seized the capital of Sanaa, forcing Hadi and his government into exile in Saudi Arabia. Months later, the Saudi-led coalition entered the war to try to restore Hadi’s government to power — but the war over the years turned into a stalemated proxy conflict with neither side winning.
Hadi’s exile distanced him from events on the ground, with his Saudi backers preventing him from returning to Yemen and the southern port city of Aden — the new seat of the exiled government — allegedly over safety issues. His administration was accused of gross mismanagement and government employees largely went without salaries.
Yemen’s war has killed more than 150,000 people, including over 14,500 civilians, and created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. This month, the warring sides announced a two-month cease-fire — the first nationwide truce in Yemen in six years — starting with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Saudi Arabia welcomed Hadi’s move and urged the presidential council to embark upon U.N.-led negotiations with the Houthis to find a “political, final and comprehensive” settlement to the conflict, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.