Riyadh announced $3 billion in financial aid to the Saudi-backed government following the announcement by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. It also called for talks with the Iran-backed Houthis, the de facto authorities in the north, who have been battling a Saudi-led coalition.
Dismissed Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a Sunni Islamist-leaning general, is resented by the Shi'ite Houthis for past military campaigns in their northern stronghold and by southerners for his leading role in the 1994 north-south civil war.
“I irreversibly delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council my full powers in accordance with the constitution and the Gulf Initiative and its executive mechanism,” Hadi said on state television.
His government was ousted from the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, by the Houthis in late 2014.
Saudi Arabia called on the council to “start negotiations with the Houthis under United Nations auspices for a final and comprehensive solution.”
The new leadership council, made up of a chair and seven deputy chairmen, will be led by Rashad Al-Alimi, who enjoys Saudi support and has a close relationship with the major political grouping, the Islamist Al-Islah party, or the Yemeni Congregation for Reform.
Deputy chairs include the leader of the southern separatist group the Southern Transitional Council, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, who’s backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The war has killed tens of thousands of people and devastated the economy, leaving 80 percent of the population of roughly 30 million people reliant on aid.
Riyadh, which last deposited funds into the Aden-based central bank in 2018, has struggled to exit the costly and unpopular conflict, which is widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
