“I announce the creation of a presidential council […] and delegates all of my powers to it”, said Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi early on April 7 in a speech broadcast by his country’s public television. From Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he resides in exile, he also removed from office the vice-president, Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar, a leader close to Sunni Islamists and hated by the Houthi rebels, supported, them, by the Shiite Iran.
This is “the most significant change” in the anti-Houthi camp “since the beginning of the war”, hot comment International Crisis Group Yemen specialist Peter Salisbury on his Twitter account.
“It brings the non-Houthi factions together into one bloc and transforms a highly centralized presidency into a more inclusive presidency,” adds Adam Baron, another country specialist, who, interviewed by Bloomberg, recalls that this measure was announced against the backdrop of a ceasefire which came into effect on 2 April and all-out discussions and diplomatic contacts still in progress.
Very close to Riyadh in its conflict with Iran on Yemeni territory, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi was unanimous against him for a long time. As early as May 2021, the site of the think tank Sanaa Center had estimated that it was necessary to consider the creation of a presidential council, on the grounds that the president in tit