The Riyadh agreement sponsored by Saudi Arabia between the legitimate government in Yemen and the Emirati-backed “Transitional Council”, has returned to square one due to Abu Dhabi’s plots to undermine the peaceful solution in the country.
Yemeni officials have accused the UAE in recent weeks of pushing its militias in Yemen to deliberately fail to implement the terms of the Riyadh agreement, a service to its conspiracy to continue spreading chaos and sabotage in the country.
After days of tension and military escalation between the two sides in Abyan and Shabwa, Prime Minister Moeen Abdel Malek, the temporary capital of Aden, on Wednesday, surprisingly, left for the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
The return of the Yemeni Prime Minister to Aden on November 22, was the only fruit that was achieved from the agreement 90 days after it was signed, while the rest of the items stumbled despite understandings made weeks ago and called it a “political and military action matrix”.
Abd al-Malik stayed for about 80 days in the presidential palace of Ma’ashiq in the Crater District, the longest time he had spent in Aden since he assumed the presidency of the Yemeni government in November 2018, as he used to move periodically to Riyadh for talks with the Yemeni President, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, resident There for 5 years.
The Prime Minister of Yemen did not carry out any field visit outside the presidential palace during his stay in Aden due to the continuing worsening of the field situation with the “Southern Transitional Council”. Most likely, Saudi Arabia wanted to stay for the longest possible period of time for fear of evaporating the only achievement of the agreement that I cheered for in Last November 5.
He attributed the official Yemeni media, the reason for the departure of the Prime Minister towards Riyadh to “hold talks with President Hadi in various important files on the scene,” but sources confirmed that the escalation of the “Transitional Council” was the reason behind the surprise visit.
Observers fear that the “Southern Transitional” refusal of the prime minister to return to Aden again, especially that he is still controlling the Aden International Airport, and has previous experiences in refusing to land the Yemeni President’s plane.
A number of Abyan regions witnessed major skirmishes between government forces and Emirati-backed “transitional” forces, and sources said that two people were killed and several wounded, in clashes that erupted on mountain ranges between the governorates of Abyan and Shabwa.
The Yemeni government and the “Transitional Council” exchanged accusations regarding the bombing of the situation in the south. While legitimacy declared that what it described as “the other side” refused to fulfill what was agreed upon in the “matrix of withdrawals”, especially allowing the coastal defense brigade to move from Aden to its new centralization areas In Tor al-Baha district of Lahj governorate, the “Southern Transitional” claimed that a leadership house belonging to it had been bombed and two of its members were killed.
The “Southern Transitional” refuses to even cross the government forces from Abyan towards Lahj via Aden, and claims that among them are elements that exploded the situation last August and intends to relocate into Aden and not take it as a mere transit station.
Riyadh was unable to compel the UAE-backed “transitional” to allow the passage of government forces, despite the descent of a military committee composed of Saudi officers to Abyan and the flight of air fighters over the area of Al-Alam, in which Emirati aircraft bombed the forces of legitimacy last August, but the transitional Al Janoubi reiterated his rejection of the Saudi request.
The Salafi leader in the “Southern Transitional Council”, Hani bin Brik, demanded that no words be repeated regarding Saudi mediation, which Yemeni activists considered a challenge to the kingdom, which has lost the trick for more than 90 days.
Armed with “Emirati support” in Emirati intransigence towards implementing the agreement and challenging Saudi Arabia, the past two days, the Emirati Minister of State, Anwar Gargash, has held the Saudi government responsible for evading the implementation of the Riyadh agreement, and he said it reflects what he described as “fragility and weakness.”
A Yemeni source said that the commander of the Saudi forces in Aden, Brigadier General Mujahid al-Otaibi, had no influence on the leaders of the “Southern Transitional Council”, which refused to comply with his repeated directives regarding the withdrawal operations from Abyan and Aden.
The source pointed out that the role of the Saudi military official was confined to providing protection only to the presidential palace of Mashiq, while the UAE-backed forces are still tightening their grip on all the joints of Aden.
Brigadier Al-Otaibi resides at the headquarters of the coalition forces in Brega, and faces a heavy legacy left by the Emirati forces, where dozens of residents have implemented vigils in front of his residence to demand the knowledge of the fate of the detainees and those forcibly disappeared in the UAE prisons.
It is not known whether Saudi Arabia’s patience will prolong over the intransigence of the “Southern Transitional”, especially before 100 days have passed since the signing of the Riyadh Agreement, but indications confirm that failure may be the inevitable outcome with the continued military build-up in all cities in southern Yemen.