Yemen inaugurates new presidential council

Yemen has inaugurated Rahad al-Alimi the head of the country’s newly formed presidential council, alongside members of the eight-member council.

The ceremony has taken place in the southern port city of Aden.

Members of the presidential council, including al-Alimi, as well as Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the head of the separatist Southern Transitional Council, and Faraj al-Bahsani, the governor of Hadramout governorate, arrived from Saudi Arabia over the past few days.

The return to the ground is a key step,” Adam Baron, a writer and Yemen analyst said. “That being said, the key priorities moving forward will ultimately be to improve service provision, and to work to improve the tentative progress towards stabilization.”

The event was not announced in advance for security reasons. In December 2020, government officials were targeted in a missile attack shortly after arriving at Aden Airport from Saudi Arabia, leading to the deaths of at least 20 people.

Yemen’s Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalek Saeed, along with other senior government officials, had also arrived in Aden, which serves as Yemen’s temporary capital, before the swearing-in ceremony.

Last week, the presidential council held its first meeting with the Yemeni government in Riyadh to set priorities for the upcoming period.

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