Shukri Hussein
29 July 2020•Update: 29 July 2020
ADEN, Yemen
Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) announced early Wednesday that it gave up its three-month self-rule in southern provinces.
Violence has flared between the STC and government forces since the group declared self-rule in Aden and other southern provinces in April.
The United Arab Emirates-backed STC accepted a Saudi Arabian proposal designed to accelerate implementation of the Riyadh Agreement, STC spokesman Nizar Haitham said on Twitter.
Haitham said the decision was made to implement the Riyadh Agreement to ensure security and stability and to demonstrate a joint effort to confront Houthi militias and terrorist groups, form a government that includes representatives of northern and southern Yemen, appoint a governor and security director for Aden, as well as replace military forces with security forces.
He also stressed partnership in all areas with the Arab League and said the fight against Iranian interventions continues.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia presented a resolution to implement the stalled Riyadh Agreement, according to Saudi state news agency.
The Riyadh agreement was signed between the government and STC in November 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.
Later Wednesday, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who currently resides in Saudi Arabia, appointed a governor and chief of police in Aden, the temporary capital.
Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in March 2015 after Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital of Sana’a and forced Hadi to flee the country.
*Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara
