In a surprising move, Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi transferred his full powers to a presidential leadership council, folding 10 years of ruling the country under which he entered into an ongoing war for the eighth year.

Today, Thursday, Yemeni television broadcast the speech of President Hadi, who also relieved his deputy, Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar, from his position, and said, "I delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council, in accordance with this announcement, an irreversible delegation of all my powers in accordance with the constitution, the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism."

Hadi said that the Presidential Command Council will complete the implementation of the tasks of the transitional phase that followed the popular uprising that he had started when he came to power as interim president in February 2012 after elections in which he was the only candidate.

Hadi’s declaration stipulated that the Presidential Leadership Council would be headed by Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi, and the membership of 7 members: Sultan Al-Arada, Tariq Saleh, Abdul Rahman Abu Zara’a, Abdullah Al-Alimi, Othman Majali, Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, and Faraj Al-Bahsani.

Chairman of the Board

According to the decision, the head of the council, Rashad Al-Alimi, born in Taiz Governorate (central Yemen) in 1954, will be the third president of Yemen since its unification in 1990, as Ali Abdullah Saleh and Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi preceded him.

Al-Alimi is an officer with the rank of major general coming from an academic security background. He worked as a professor at Sana’a University. He held several security positions in the Ministry of Interior. During Saleh’s rule, he was appointed Minister of Interior, Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs, and Minister of Local Administration.

He also appointed Al-Alimi - who was close to Saleh, before he defected from him with the beginning of coalition operations in Yemen - as an advisor to Hadi, and during the war years he remained residing between the Saudi capitals, Riyadh and the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

And recently, his name was frequently mentioned during the crises that afflicted the Yemeni presidency and the government, and he was also appreciated in the security community when he assumed the leadership of the interior.

President Hadi’s meeting with the President of the Presidency Council and a number of Vice-Presidents of the Presidency Council pic.twitter.com/JvQSdfkb3p

— Mukhtar Al-Rahbi (@alrahbi5) April 7, 2022

Political and administrative backgrounds

According to Hadi’s decision, each member of the Presidential Leadership Council will have the rank of Vice Chairman of the Leadership Council, but it is remarkable that all the appointed personalities come from different backgrounds, and had an active role during the war years.

These figures are led by the governor of Marib, the last stronghold of the government in northern Yemen, Major General Sultan Al-Arada, who has been leading the ongoing fight against the Houthi group since 2015, and enjoys great consensus from the anti-Houthi parties and military leaders.

Al-Arada runs the province, which is rich in oil and gas, and during the war years he was able to make the small city of Ma’rib - which included about 300,000 Yemenis before the war - a destination for Yemenis and displaced people, as its population now reaches more than 3 million Yemenis, according to the local authorities.

The council also includes the governor of Hadhramaut (southeast of the country), Major General Faraj al-Bahsani, a former soldier in the army of the state of southern Yemen who was returned by President Hadi from Saudi Arabia and appointed as commander of the second military region in 2015, before adding to him the position of governor of the province in 2017.

Al-Bahsani is accused of the failure of the administration, and the governorate is constantly witnessing angry protests denouncing the deterioration of basic services, but it is to his credit that the governorate has spared the cycle of conflict that struck the southern governorates.

Othman Majali, a member of parliament from the Congress Party and former Minister of State and Agriculture, was included in the council. The man from Saada Governorate (northern Yemen) is known for his closeness to Saudi Arabia, and he is also one of the most prominent figures who have fought against the Houthi group since the first war in 2004.

The fourth member of the council is Abdullah Al-Alimi, and he hails from Shabwa governorate (southeast), and his star has risen since the start of the war after he was appointed director of President Hadi’s office.

This is a new board.

But after the chances of restoring the state on the ground weakened.

Its strength is that it is the result of an apparent consensus to end divisions, and its weakness is that the country, after seven years, has no army or security.

In the council there are names that have experiences and they can be bet on.

— mustafa naji Mustafa Naji (@mustafaAljabzi1) April 7, 2022

Loyal to the Emirates

The three remaining members of the council are united by loyalty to the Emirates despite their recent conflicting goals and interests. They are the head of the Southern Transitional Council, which calls for the secession of southern Yemen from its north, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of the national resistance, Tariq Saleh, and the leader of the Salafi-oriented Giants Brigades, Abd al-Rahman Abu Zaraa al-Muharrami.

Al-Zubaidi was one of the military leaders in the South Yemen army, before he became chased by the regime of President Saleh after the unity war in 1994, and his name emerged during the Houthi invasion of Aden and the south of the country, as he led forces of the resistance that forced the Houthis to withdraw.

Hadi appointed him as governor of the temporary capital, Aden, before dismissing him, to go with others to establish the Southern Transitional Council with support and funding from the Emirates, and also leads large military formations established by Abu Dhabi, such as the Security Belt and Support and Support Brigades that fought confrontations against government forces to eventually control Aden. and a number of provinces.

As for Tariq Saleh, nephew of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, during his uncle's rule, he headed the National Security Agency (intelligence), and with the outbreak of the war, he sided with the Houthis and fought fiercely against the Saudi-led coalition forces and government forces.

But after his uncle's alliance with the Houthis was broken and he was killed at their hands at the end of 2017, Tariq Saleh was forced to flee and after a while he appeared again, then returned to Aden with Emirati protection, to move to the western coast, and formed there with Emirati support the National Resistance Forces.

During the past three years, Tariq Saleh established a political office and declared himself president, and refused to recognize President Hadi's authority until recent days, as he began to imply Hadi's legitimacy.

The last member of the council was a surprise, as Abu Zara’a al-Muharrami is the leader of a military faction that has always presented himself as not seeking a political position, and the man - who appears for the first time on the media - was appointed commander of the giants’ forces by the UAE despite the opposition of a number of military leaders .

Dr..

Rashad Al-Alimi, the 68-year-old head of the new Presidential Leadership Council, has a wide political balance. He is a leader in the General People’s Congress and worked as an advisor to the president. He headed the Alliance of Political Forces in 2019. He was the former Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior.

Photography: Saleh Al-Ghannam


Source: Asharq Al-Awsat pic.twitter.com/8t86F59bL7

— Badr Alqahtani (@BadrAlQahtani) April 7, 2022

Council Powers

According to the announced decision, the presidential decision has the authority of the supreme leadership of the armed forces, representing the country, appointing governorate governors, security directors, Supreme Court judges and the governor of the Central Bank, ratifying agreements, and declaring a state of emergency.

Decisions of the Presidential Leadership Council are issued by consensus, and in the event of incompatibility, decisions are taken when voting on them by a simple majority. When votes are equal, the side that the Presidential Leadership Council voted for shall prevail. In the event that a simple majority is not available, the matter is referred to a joint meeting with the Presidency of the Consultation and Reconciliation Commission.