Yemeni Brotherhood Launches Attack on Legitimacy
The leadership of the Reform Party, the Yemeni branch of the Brotherhood, has intensified its sharp attack against the legitimacy represented by the Presidential Council, against the backdrop of the prisoner negotiations witnessed in Muscat between the government and the Houthi group, under the pretext of revealing the fate of prominent party leader Mohammed Qahtan, abducted by Houthi militias nine years ago.
Party leader Mohammed Al-Yadoumi referred in a tweet on the (X) platform to the instructions of the President of the Presidential Council to the government negotiating delegation not to conclude any exchange deal that does not include the release of Mohammed Qahtan, or at least an estimate of his fate, according to what was reported by (Al-Amn News).
He said: “Following this directive, a meeting was held in Muscat for the Houthi militias, speaking in one language, and we had hoped that legitimacy would have a representative in this meeting!” In an unprecedented accusation against the government delegation, which had previously held negotiating rounds with the Iran-backed group.
This reformist attack escalated in its tone with prominent party leader Abdo Salem in a post on his Facebook page, accusing the legitimate government of “swallowing Mohammed Qahtan” and excluding the party from the negotiations, questioning, “What legitimacy are these reformists looking for in the corridors of the Muscat negotiations?”
The reformist leader, in the context of his attack against legitimacy, implicitly acknowledged the party’s control over administrative and military decisions in Marib and Taiz, and its control over the frontlines there under the banner of the “National Army.”
He claimed that “90% of the prisoners belong to the Reform, and all Houthi prisoners are in the custody institutions controlled by the Reform Party, in addition to the Reform’s control over most of the firing lines and the volatile contact zones negotiated upon.”
He commented, saying: “Here ends the story of legitimacy,” a situation that imposes on the reformists pressure on the Supreme Committee for Reform to urgently convene a meeting and decide to withdraw from the Muscat negotiations and from the legitimate government with all its institutions.
He concluded his post with a threat, saying: “Qahtan is legitimacy, the legitimacy of the upcoming revolution, and without him, it’s all just hollow talk.”
The sharp exchanges between the Yemeni government negotiating delegation in Muscat on prisoner talks and the leadership of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform highlighted severe disagreements between the Muslim Brotherhood and the legitimacy led by Rashad al-Alimi, with the party itself having strong representation within it.
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The management style of the Muscat negotiations has directly caused the dispute, but Yemeni sources have spoken of deeper disagreements affecting the ongoing peace process aimed at finding a political solution to the Yemeni crisis.
Leadership within the Reform Party has expressed concerns that legitimacy may be preparing to pass “under-the-table agreements with the Houthis” at the expense of their party and the significant gains it has achieved in Marib, transforming the oil-rich governorate into what resembles a local emirate tailored to compensate for its loss of most of its strongholds in Yemen.
