Yemen’s president hands powers to new leadership council

Yemen’s exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has transferred his powers to a new presidential council, in a major political shake-up that took place as efforts to end the country’s years-long war gained traction with a fragile two-month truce.

“I irreversibly delegate to this presidential leadership council my full powers,” Hadi said in a televised statement early on Thursday, the final day of peace talks held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a military coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government against the Houthi rebels.

He said the council would manage Yemen’s political, military and security affairs during what he called the “transitional period”. It would also “negotiate with the Houthis to reach a ceasefire all over Yemen and sit at the negotiating table to reach a final political solution”, he added.

The council will be chaired by Mr Alimi, an adviser to Mr Hadi and former interior minister who reportedly has close ties with Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s powerful Sunni Islamist Islah party.

Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced that the eight-member council would be led by former minister Rashad al-Alimi.

He tasked it with negotiating with the Houthis to agree a permanent ceasefire and a political solution to the war.

The move comes five days after the start of a two-month nationwide truce.

Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in 2015, when the Iran-aligned Houthis seized control of large parts of the west of the country.

Mr Hadi fled abroad, and a Saudi-led alliance of Arab states intervened to restore his rule. However, seven years of military stalemate have followed.

The fighting has reportedly left more than 150,000 people dead and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than 23 million people – three quarters of the population – in need of some form of aid.

The move, according to Mr Hadi’s statement, was taken in line with a 2011 power transfer initiative devised by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council following anti-government protests and political upheaval in the country.

A seven-year conflict has divided Yemen between an internationally recognised government led by Mr Hadi and backed by Saudi Arabia, which is based in the southern city of Aden, and the Iran-aligned Houthi group in the capital Sanaa.