The Yemeni Presidential Council: Transferring legitimacy towards unclear settlement

The announcement to form a Yemeni presidential council in Riyadh constituted a shift in the supreme political authority of the Yemeni government. It aims at making the leadership presidential council includes representatives of several components that express a diverse spectrum of Yemenis. Representation in the council relied mainly on military forces that resulted from the war and did not disturb the two main forces in the coalition, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This is to be added to the representation by regions, whether equally between northerners and southerners or in including major regional blocs.

According to the course of the Riyadh consultations, President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi’s announcement of delegating his powers to a presidential council came from outside the consultation’s hall in the Saudi capital, is just a preparation for the final session of the consultations, and the subsequent new transitional phase. This stage was heralded by the final declaration of the consultations, which affirmed the council's support in leading UN-sponsored negotiations with the Houthi group to end the war.

It is likely that this ready-made content of the council, which is based on various Yemeni representations, is what the circles of influence adopt in the file of the solution. Since the mandate of the Presidential Council is not based on the Yemeni constitution, this council enjoys the support of the international community, which was reflected in the presence of its representatives, led by the UN envoy to Yemen, and in the swearing-in of the President and members of the Presidential Council in Aden.

Apart from the absence of constitutional legislation for this procedure, it is clear that there is a Saudi desire that intersects with international support, especially with the administration of US President John Biden, in order to end the war in Yemen.

However, the Presidential Council, which came as an expression of Yemeni divisions, imposes a space for unlimited external interference, which can be a decisive factor in sorting out a new Yemeni political reality. At the same time, it can be a reality, mined with complications, that can detonate any settlement

 

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