The Saudi-backed puppet leader of Yemen, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, whom had been based in Riyadh for years, has officially abdicated and ceded his powers to a presidential council on Thursday, after Saudi pressure.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi said that he had delegated his powers to a “presidential leadership council”, and dismissed Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.
The council will assume the duties of the former president and his deputy, and will be in charge of all political, military and security decisions during a “transitional period,” the statement claimed.
The measure was taken in line with a 2011 power transfer initiative devised by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The leadership council, made up of a chair and seven deputy chairmen, will be headed by Rashad al-Alimi, a security official who was Interior Minister during the presidency of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The council has reportedly been ordered by the Saudi government to immediately engage in negotiations with the National Salvation Government in Sana’a, in order to achieve a peace agreement.
