Yemen’s southern separatists have pledged to abandon their aspirations for self-rule and implement a Saudi-brokered power-sharing agreement with the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The Southern Transitional Council’s (STC) announcement on Wednesday marked a major step towards closing a dangerous rift between the nominal allies in Yemen’s chaotic proxy war, and came hours after Saudi Arabia presented a plan to “accelerate” the stalled peace deal’s implementation.
The proposal calls for the formation of a new government within 30 days and the appointment of a new governor and security director for Aden, the interim seat of Hadi’s government.
“We have achieved our goals” Nizar Haitham, spokesman for the STC, said in a Twitter post.
“The Southern Transitional Council announces the abandonment of the declaration of self-administration in order to allow the Arab alliance to implement the Riyadh agreement,” he said.
The announcement followed intense pressure from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Haitham noted, and affirmed “the continuing and deepening” of the STC’s “strategic partnership with the Arab coalition”.
Last year’s power-sharing deal, signed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, set the stage for the end of a long-running rivalry between the Saudi-backed Hadi government and the UAE-backed southern separatists. Both sides are supposed allies in the Saudi-led coalition’s war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the country’s capital, Sanaa.
The Riyadh agreement proposed the formation of a new cabinet made up equally between the north and south and the centralisation of all armed groups under government control.
But the deal was thrown into disarray in April, when the separatists declared self-rule and seized control of the port city of Aden, in a move that ignited fierce fighting across southern Yemen and the Socotra archipelago.
The standoff between Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s respective allies in Yemen has threatened to shatter the coalition and complicated broader peace efforts to end the five-year conflict, which has killed more than 112,000 people and created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
Saudi proposal
The Saudi plan on Wednesday lays out commitments that have been obstacles for months, such as the formation of a government composed of 24 ministers with equal representation for northerners and southerners, including the separatists. It also asks for the withdrawal of rival forces from Aden and the flashpoint southern province of Abyan.
The blueprint gives Yemen’s current prime minister, Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, the mandate to form a government over the next month. And shortly after the STC accouncement, Yemen’s state-run SABA news agency named the newly appointed security director and governor of Aden – Ahmed al-Amlas.
Rajih Badi, a spokesman for Hadi’s government, welcomed the Saudi initiative and expressed hope that the separatists would make good on their promise to implement the agreement “out of necessary and urgent national interest”.
Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s vice minister of defence, said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “efforts have succeeded” to implement the Riyadh deal “and achieve lasting peace, security, and prosperity for Yemen”.
The rapprochement comes as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the conflict’s main sponsors, have sought to inch away from their war with the Houthi rebels, which has pushed millions to the brink of famine and settled into a bloody stalemate.
Saudi Arabia announced a unilateral ceasefire earlier this year, which swiftly collapsed but more broadly reflected its growing unease with the war. Last summer, the UAE announced it was ending its role in the conflict, although it continues to wield influence through its proxies, such as the separatist group.
‘New phase of prolonged escalation’
Mahjoob Zweiri, director of the Gulf Studies Center in Doha, Qatar, said Wednesday’s developments indicate that “all parties are tired and exhausted by this conflict”.
“But I’m not sure the Riyadh agreement can be implemented, taking into consideration two important facts,” he told Al Jazeera.
“First, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi do not agree 100 percent on how things should be moved. Second, it’s not only those two countries that can decide the situation in Yemen. They also need the international community on board, including the United Nations, Iran. But none of these players have confidence in [Saudi and the UAE].”
He added: “There is no long-term vision. There are different parties with different agendas and no agreement on where things should go”.
Although the deal is not likely to be a step towards lasting peace, even the vague prospect of a settlement was welcome, as Yemen’s devastated health sector grapples with a major coronavirus outbreak and the country faces a drastic shortfall of humanitarian aid that has forced 75 percent of UN programmes for the country to end or reduce operations.
On Tuesday, UN special envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths painted a bleak picture of the situation in Yemen to the Security Council.
UN-mediated peace negotiations between the rebels and government have failed to produce an agreement, he said.
Houthi forces were pushing fiercely into the oil-rich province of Marib “with profound humanitarian and economic consequences”, Griffiths said, while missile attacks across the northwest have resulted in civilian deaths, many of whom were children.
Yemen’s economy is collapsing, he continued, food prices are surging, and to make matters worse, an abandoned oil tanker moored off the coast and loaded with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil is at risk of rupture or exploding.
“I do not wish to sugarcoat things,” Griffiths said, warning that the country could plunge at any moment into “a new phase of prolonged escalation, uncontrolled spread of COVID-19, and economic decline”.
