02 December 2015•Update: 02 December 2015
SANAA, Yemen
Yemeni Vice President and Prime Minister Khaled Bahah on Wednesday officially rejected a handful of ministerial changes decreed one day earlier by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
"We are going through a critical stage," Bahah said on his official Facebook page. "We should not repeat our mistakes. There is no room for equivocation, fear or anxiety."
He went on to indirectly accuse Hadi of failing to have "learnt the lesson" from a 2011 uprising that drove longstanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power, which, he said, had been a natural reaction against autocratic rule.
On Tuesday, Hadi announced a limited cabinet reshuffle, which -- if implemented -- would see the replacement of the current ministers of foreign affairs, the interior, intelligence, communications, civil services and transportation.
According to Yemen’s official SABA news agency, Hadi appointed chief government negotiator Abdel-Malek al-Mekhlafi as foreign minister and Gen. Hussein Mohamed Arab as interior minister, succeeding Gen. Abdo Mohamed al-Huzaifi, who was appointed as Yemen’s new intelligence chief.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Tuesday following the announcement of Hadi’s reshuffle, a government source close to Bahah said that the latter had rejected the changes as "illegal and unconstitutional".
Yemen has remained in turmoil since September of last year, when the Shia Houthi militant group overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.
In March, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies began an extensive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi gains in Yemen and restoring Hadi’s government.
Hadi has since returned to Yemen’s southern city of Aden, which currently serves as the temporary seat of his government.
Fighting, meanwhile, continues to rage in several parts of the country between the Houthis and their allies and pro-Hadi forces.
