On February 27, 2012, television screens broadcast a rare ceremony in the Republican Palace in the capital, Sanaa, where Ali Abdullah Saleh officially handed power to Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and this entailed 33 years during which Saleh was the first man, and his deputy began ruling.

Hadi ascended to power following the consensual presidential elections that represented a way out of the crisis that followed the February 2011 revolution that toppled former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and seemed like a referendum;

Hadi was the only candidate for the position of transitional president for only two years.

Ten years ago, Hadi became the president of a fragmented country that has been at war for six years and is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis.

In his early days, Hadi imposed bold decisions based on popular, regional and international support and the Gulf initiative, and began restructuring the army, excluding Saleh's men, and holding a national dialogue conference in which all political and societal components were included.

In parallel, Hadi was accused of ignoring the progress of the Houthis in the north, and his visit to the city of Amran (north of Sanaa) after the Houthis took control of it and killed Hamid al-Qushaibi, the most prominent military leader, and his famous statement that the governorate had returned to the bosom of the state, was one of the incomprehensible events of the way he managed the country.

After the end of the National Dialogue Conference, Hadi was unable to hand over power to an elected president two years after his appointment as scheduled, then war broke out in the country with the Houthis taking control of the capital, Sana’a in September 2014, and the president left in disguise to Aden, and with the escalation of the war and the Houthis targeting his residence In Aden, he left again for the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi meets with the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths in Riyadh (Al-Jazeera)

Decade of the collapse of Yemen

Writer and researcher Adel Dashila says that "10 years of Hadi's rule can be described as the decade of the collapse of the Yemeni state, as the state disintegrated, the national forces were weakened, the structure of the tribe was torn apart, and alternative entities for the state were created."

Dashila explains to Al Jazeera Net that the solution in Yemen necessitates the presence of national forces that impose a fait accompli and end the existence of armed entities, but he believes that this is not available until now.

During the 7 years, Hadi did not return to Yemen despite his claim that his government controls the largest proportion of the country, and his return was limited to a few visits, the last of which was in April 2019, when a meeting of the House of Representatives was held in the city of Seiyun in Hadhramaut Governorate (east of Yemen), and since then Then he did not return to the country.

According to a government source, Hadi prefers to stay in Riyadh as long as the temporary capital Aden is under the control of the UAE-backed transitional council, although the Riyadh agreement signed between the Yemeni government and the transitional at the end of 2019 stipulated Hadi’s return to Aden until the government takes the constitutional oath before him, which is what happened in Riyadh.


Quiet alternative

Recently, there has been a growing talk that the international community and the Saudi-led coalition are looking for an alternative to President Hadi.

According to an informed source, Hadi refuses to talk about any developments related to his position, which was previously at stake in 2016, when the UAE pushed for his overthrow and the appointment of his deputy, Khaled Bahah, in his place, which made Hadi anticipate that step by appointing Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar as his deputy.

However, an adviser to the president denies this to Al Jazeera Net, and says, "The search for an alternative to Hadi, and the formation of a presidential council remains only recent in the media."

He added, "No idea or project was presented to bypass President Hadi, given that it represents the legitimacy of the current situation, and it is very difficult to unanimously agree on an alternative figure."


Solve the problem

Adel Al-Shuja'a, a member of the General Secretariat of the General People's Congress Party, believes that "the search for an alternative to Hadi must come through organizing elections following the disarmament of all parties, and otherwise it is a call for the continuation of the war."

Al-Shuja'a adds to Al-Jazeera Net that the search for an alternative to President Hadi in the way it is promoted, "the aim of which is to liquidate and tear up constitutional legitimacy, reproduce failure, and expand the circle of internal conflict."

"The regional and international parties must stop the war and adopt elections under international supervision, if they want a real interest for Yemen," Al-Shujaa says.