The Yemeni government has issued a new statement on their power-sharing deal with the Southern Transitional Council (STC), the major separatist movement. They accuse the STC of having reneged on the 2019 power-sharing deal meant to end fighting in the south.
Saudi Arabia brokered the deal after the UAE-backed separatists seized much of South Yemen. The government complains that they never returned that territory to government control.
The process was a lot more complex than anyone expected. In practice, the government reneged on the power-sharing deal almost immediately, and the Saudis have had to intervene several times to try to save the process. The government’s leadership complained it wasn’t fair to have to give up actual positions of power to un-elected separatists.
The new complaints are really not new problems, but rather a reiteration of the state of the deal. The Saudis have been pressuring the government to return more officials to Aden in recent weeks, and that’s likely part of this, a chance to shift the blame to the STC.
We should quit pretending that there’s any meaningful difference between “the Saudis” and the entity described here as “the government” of Yemen. Any power that Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi’s regime actually holds is entirely dependent on Saudi generosity. The Saudis don’t “pressure” Hadi. They tell him to jump and he asks how high.