CORRUPTION AND POVERTY PRIORITIES FOR YEMEN’S NEW COUNCIL
▶ Presidential body wants peace, says deputy leader Al Zubeidi
Yemen’s new presidential council aims to rebuild vital public services and provide security throughout Aden and the liberated areas of the country, the body’s deputy chief has told The National.
Days after the council was sworn in to replace Abdrabu Mansur Hadi, the body’s deputy head, Maj Gen Aidaroos Al Zubeidi, said a new era had begun but that the challenges were significant.
“There are many priorities,” he said. “First, we need to start providing state services, pay salaries [to civil servants] and establish peace and security across the capital, Aden.”
He said the council had been in “open-ended” consultations with the Yemeni Cabinet about drawing up a plan of action and the means to introduce it.
“We have always taken the concerns and suffering of our peoples into consideration during the different stages of negotiations and today it is time to turn our words into actions,” he said. Maj Gen Al Zubeidi leads the Southern Transitional Council – the faction’s forces have been crucial in pushing the Iran-supported Houthi rebels back.
He admits the dire economic state of one of the world’s poorest nations will hamper the new administration’s abilities. But he said austerity, fighting administrative corruption and rationing state spending on the most crucial areas would allow them to make progress.
“Of course, we also count heavily on many of our brothers in the Arab coalition to provide financial aid to revive the economic situation,” he said.
“We also rely on our friends, the international donors, to provide humanitarian support to the Yemeni people.”
The government would look to rally international support, he said.
“Our message to the regional and international communities is that we are moving forward to establish peace, security and stability in the region and combat terrorism, but we will fight the Houthi militia if it continues its intransigence and rejection of calls for peace.”
The new council will launch bodies to audit and oversee spending to fight corruption in the liberated areas of Yemen, he said, and explained this had been a major point of discussion in forming the leadership body.
“We will also punish anyone who engages in corruption immediately,” Maj Gen Al Zubeidi said. He said the path towards peace with the Houthi rebels in Sanaa was through the UN process but said that while the “option of peace is the priority, the option of war is also on the table if the Houthis continue their intransigence and their rejection of peace calls”.
Little progress has been made towards lasting peace since the last round of talks in Sweden in 2019. As he left office, the UN envoy at the time, Martin Griffiths, who spent years shuttling back and forth trying to lay the groundwork for more dialogue, said the opportunity was fading.
Yet hopes have been renewed with a ceasefire halting bloody offensives and the agreement to allow flights in and out of rebel-held Sanaa for the first time since 2015.
The Houthis have also agreed to a UN plan to unload oil from an ageing tanker off the coast of Yemen that experts and officials say is a ticking environmental time bomb.
“We are committed to the truce at all levels, and just as we have the ability to exercise restraint, we also have the ability to confront any escalation by the Houthi militia,” Maj Gen Al Zubeidi said.
However, he said, terrorism was on the rise again despite efforts to stamp out extremist groups such as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS.
“Terrorism has recently re-emerged in the governorates of Abyan and Shabwa as the Houthi militias begin to change their strategies through co-ordination with terrorist organisations [Al Qaeda and ISIS],” he said.
While fighting this was important, Maj Gen Al Zubeidi said, securing international shipping lanes was vital and the Yemeni presidential council would welcome any international effort in this regard.
Houthi rebels have carried out hijackings and used bomb-laden boats to disrupt shipping in recent years.
“We need naval equipment, weapons, boats, training and rehabilitation for soldiers and officers to carry out their tasks professionally in securing the shipping lanes in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and Bab Al Mandeb,” Maj Gen Al Zubeidi said.
Just as we have the ability to exercise restraint, we also have the ability to confront any escalation by the Houthi militia
MAJ GEN AIDAROOS AL ZUBEIDI Southern Transitional Council leader