Yemen’s president transfers authority to a new governing council

Yemen’s president said Thursday that he is delegating power to a new leadership council, signalling a fundamental shift in the coalition fighting Huthi rebels as a shaky truce takes root.

“I irreversibly relinquish my complete powers to this presidential leadership council,” President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi said in a televised address early Thursday, the penultimate day of peace negotiations in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Despite a Saudi-led operation began in 2015, Hadi’s internationally recognised government has been at odds with Iran-backed Huthi rebels who hold the capital Sanaa and much of the north.

A UN-brokered truce that went into force on Saturday, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, has provided a ray of optimism in the conflict that has produced what the UN calls the world’s greatest humanitarian disaster.

The truce happened while peace discussions in Riyadh were taking place without the Huthis, who refused to attend talks on “enemy” territory.

Some commentators questioned if the talks could be successful in the absence of the Huthis, but Thursday’s news may assist the frequently fractured alliance fighting the rebels to speak with one voice in any future peace talks.

Hadi also said he fired Vice President Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar.

Rashad al-Alimi, a former interior minister and Hadi adviser, would lead the new council of eight members.

Hadi stated that the government will “talk with the Huthis to secure a truce throughout Yemen and meet at the negotiation table to find a definitive political settlement.”

Hadi has remained in Saudi Arabia since fleeing to the country in 2015 as rebel troops closed in on his final stronghold, the southern port city of Aden.

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According to Peter Salisbury, senior Yemen analyst for the International Crisis Group, the founding of the council constitutes “the most fundamental transformation in the inner workings of the anti-Huthi camp since the conflict began.”

However, he warned that putting the plan into action would be “difficult to say the least.”

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, met with the council and expressed optimism for a “new chapter” in Yemen, according to official television video.

Saudi Arabia applauded Hadi’s statement and committed $3 billion in assistance and support, with the UAE footing a portion of the cost.

Yemen’s 30 million people are in desperate need of help.

This month’s UN donors’ conference collected less than a third of its $4.27 billion target, raising concerns in a country where 80 percent of the population is dependent on aid.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, stated on Wednesday that there has been a “substantial reduction in violence” since the ceasefire went into force, although both sides have accused one other of small “breach” of the ceasefire.

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