Yemen’s president hands over power to leadership council

dpa Cairo Yemen’s President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi has ceded power to a new leadership council, tasked with negotiating a political solution to end the co...

dpa Cairo Yemen’s President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi has ceded power to a new leadership council, tasked with negotiating a political solution to end the country’s years-long conflict.Yemen has been locked in a devastating conflict between a Saudi-backed government and the Iran-aligned Houthis since late 2014.Hadi, who took office in 2012, created an “irrevocable” mandate for the council to take over all his powers, according to a presidential declaration carried on Thursday by the Yemeni state news agency Saba.The council will take over his political, military and security responsibilities during an unspecified transitional period.It will also negotiate with Yemen’s Houthi rebels for a permanent nationwide ceasefire and a “final and comprehensive” political solution.A Houthi official called the council an “illegitimate” step.“The so-called Presidential Council is an extension of occupation,” Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, said, referring to a Saudi-led campaign fighting his group in Yemen.“They do not represent any legitimacy. Representatives of legitimacy in Yemen are those who defend Yemen’s independence and sovereignty,” he told the Beirut-based news television al-Mayadeen.The new council is led by Rashad al-Alimi, an ex-interior minister believed to have close links with Saudi Arabia.The council also comprises seven members with each serving as deputy head. One member is Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the head of Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council, supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).The UAE is Saudi Arabia’s main partner in the military coalition that is fighting the rebels in Yemen Hadi on Thursday also relieved his influential deputy Ali Mohssen al-Ahmar of his post, a step “dictated by the country’s supreme interests,” Hadi’s decree said without elaboration.In recent years, Hadi, 76, has often lived in exile in Saudi Arabia.The steps unveiled Thursday came after a two-month truce, brokered by the United Nations and agreed by Yemen’s warring sides, went into effect on Saturday when the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began.On Thursday, Saudi Arabia voiced full backing to the newly formed  council and called on it to initiate UN-sponsored peace negotiations with the Houthis.The oil-rich monarchy also pledged $3 billion in urgent aid to Yemen, including $2 billion to be jointly offered along with the UAE.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday met with members of the new Yemeni council in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the Saudi official news agency SPA reported.The powerful heir apparent hoped the new body will mark a “new chapter in Yemen transferring it from war to peace and development,” according to SPA.Saudi Arabia and its allies have been fighting alongside the government in Yemen against the Houthis since March 2015, months after the rebels seized parts of the country including the capital Sana’a. The conflict has pushed Yemen, already one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, to the verge of famine and devastated the country’s health facilities.The UN has described Yemen as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.