South Yemen Power Sharing Deadline Passes With No Deal

The deadline for having a joint government in South Yemen has passed with no deal in place. The deal was meant to see the Hadi government sharing cabinet positions with the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to end on and off fighting.

Meant to be an even split of the cabinet, the Hadi government never came through on the positions. The STC says that the government are not only “deviating” from what they agreed to before, but are mobilizing their troops around contested areas, likely expecting new fighting.

While the government denied deviating from the agreement, recent comments from the Interior Minister have indicated that they view the power-sharing that the Saudis and UAE decided upon “unfair.”

This is a problem because the southern deal was meant to be a test case for a similar deal to end the entire Yemen war. In both cases, however, the Hadi government has objected to power-sharing as part of negotiation, as it envisions having absolute power in post-war Yemen.