New Yemeni gov't to be formed: Arab Coalition

SANAA, Yemen

The Saudi-led Arab Coalition in Yemen said Thursday that the Yemeni political parties that signed the Riyadh agreement had agreed to form a new government in one week.

"All necessary arrangements have been fulfilled to accelerate the implementation of the Riyadh agreement as of today," the official SPA news agency quoted an unnamed coalition official as saying.

The official said the sides had agreed to form a government consisting of 24 ministers, including some representing the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council.

Without specifying any candidate names for the ministers' posts, the official said: "The government formation will be announced once the military part of the agreement is completed within a week."

The announcement came after months of talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh to implement the agreement between the Yemeni government and Southern Transitional Council (STC).

In July, the Arab Coalition announced a proposal to accelerate the implementation of the Riyadh agreement in which Yemen's separatist STC gives up its unilaterally proclaimed self-rule in the southern provinces.

The Riyadh agreement was signed between the government and STC in November 2019 following a month of fighting and included 29 terms to address political, social, economic and security situations in Yemen's southern provinces. Both parties, however, blamed each other for not abiding by the agreement.

Besides this conflict, Yemen has also been beset by violence and chaos since 2014, when Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

The crisis escalated in 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition launched a devastating air campaign aimed at rolling back Houthi territorial gains.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the conflict in Yemen has so far claimed the lives of 233,000 people.

*Ahmed Asmar in Ankara contributed to this report