Yemen: President assigns premier to form new gov't

By Safiye Karabacak

ISTANBUL (AA) - The president of Yemen on Wednesday ordered the country's prime minister to form a new cabinet in accordance with the Riyadh agreement signed with the UAE-backed Southern Transition Council (STC), according to official media.

The current cabinet will now act as a caretaker government until Maeen Abdulmalik forms a new one, the official SABA news agency reported.

The Riyadh agreement was signed between the government and STC in November following a month of fighting and included 29 terms to address political, social, economic and security situations in Yemen's southern provinces. Both parties, however, blamed each other for not abiding by the agreement.

Saudi Arabia recently presented a resolution to implement the stalled Riyadh Agreement, according to Saudi state news agency.

Upon the resolution, Yemen's separatist STC announced early Wednesday that it gave up its three-month self-rule in the southern provinces.

The STC accepted the Saudi Arabian proposal designed to accelerate implementation of the Riyadh Agreement, STC spokesman Nizar Haitham said on Twitter.

Later Wednesday, Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who currently resides in Saudi Arabia, appointed a governor and chief of police in Aden, the temporary capital.

Violence has flared between the STC and government forces since the group declared self-rule in Aden and other southern provinces in April.

Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in March 2015 after Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital of Sana'a and forced Hadi to flee the country.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz