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A6 WORLD NEWS
Friday 8 april 2022
Yemen’s president steps aside amid efforts to end war

By AHMED AL-HAJ and Yemen’s civil war started
SAMY MAGDY in 2014, when the Houthis
Associated Press seized the capital of Sa-
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — naa, forcing Hadi and his
Yemen’s exiled president government into exile in
stepped aside and trans- Saudi Arabia.
ferred his powers to a presi- Months later, the Saudi-led
dential council Thursday, as coalition entered the war
international and regional to try to restore Hadi’s gov-
efforts to end the coun- ernment to power but the
try’s long-running civil war war over the years turned
gained momentum with a into a stalemated proxy
two-month truce. conflict with neither side
Saudi Arabia and the Unit- winning.
ed Arab Emirates, major Hadi’s exile distanced him
players in the war, appear from events on the ground,
to have had a role in Presi- with his Saudi backers pre-
dent Abed Rabbo Mansour venting him from returning
Hadi’s decision, quickly to Yemen and the southern
welcoming it with a pledge port city of Aden the new
of $3 billion in aid. The head seat of the exiled govern-
of the new council has ment allegedly over safety
close ties to Riyadh. issues. His administration
It remains to be seen how Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi walks next of his Tunisian counterpart Beji Caid was accused of gross mis-
the development will im- Essebsi, not in photo, upon his arrival at Tunis-Carthage international airport to attend the Arab management and govern-
Summit, in Tunis, Tunisia, March 30, 2019.
pact Yemen’s grinding Associated Press ment employees largely
conflict. A Saudi-led coali- went without salaries.
tion of which the UAE is a “Our Yemeni people are Houthis, according to a men’s state-run TV. He also Separately, Aden became
member has for years been not concerned with any il- statement aired on state- sacked Vice President Ali the scene of infighting
fighting the Iran-backed legitimate decisions made run media. Mohsen al-Ahmar, a pow- among the coalition when
Houthi rebels to restore by illegitimate parties be- The development, which erful military figure, and del- UAE-backed separatists
Hadi’s government to pow- yond their borders,” Abdul- could unify the anti-Houthi egated al-Ahmar’s powers briefly overtook the city in
er. So far, U.N. mediation ef- Salam tweeted. camp after years of infight- to the presidential council. 2019. A Riyadh-brokered
forts have yielded little fruit, Peter Salisbury, Yemen ex- ing and disputes, was al- The council is chaired by deal later that year at-
and fighting, airstrikes and pert at the International most certainly orchestrated Rashad al-Alimi, an ad- tempted to reconcile the
missile attacks had been Crisis Group, described the in Riyadh where Yemen’s visor to Hadi and former separatists and Hadi’s
escalating in the war until power transfer as the “most pro-government and pro- interior minister with the forces but power struggles
the cease-fire took effect. consequential shift in the Saudi factions have been government of late strong- have persisted.
Houthi spokesman Mo- inner workings of the anti- meeting over the past man President Ali Abdullah Hadi’s rule was also under-
hammed Abdul-Salam dis- Houthi bloc since war be- week to discuss efforts to Saleh. Al-Alimi enjoys close mined by the UAE’s influ-
missed any significance of gan.” end the war. ties with Saudi Arabia and ence in the territories nomi-
the new council. The rebels Hadi, 76, said the newly “I irreversibly delegate to the powerful Islah party Ye- nally under his control. The
have in the past benefited established council will the Presidential Leader- men’s branch of the trans- UAE trained, financed and
from squabbles among run the government and ship Council my full pow- national Islamist movement armed militias in Yemen
their rivals. lead negotiations with the ers,” Hadi declared on Ye- the Muslim Brotherhood. and set up prisons. q

Japan, Philippines to step up security ties amid China worry

By MARI YAMAGUCHI ceptable, Japan’s Defense China by name. United States and other although it did not violate
Associated Press Ministry said in a statement Japan has significantly ex- partners, including Austra- Japanese airspace.
TOKYO (AP) — The defense that avoided identifying panded joint drills with the lia, India, France, Britain Kishi and Lorenzana also
ministers of Japan and the and Germany, that share agreed to increase coop-
Philippines agreed Thurs- its concerns about China’s eration in defense equip-
day to bolster security co- assertion of its territorial ment and technology
operation and expand joint claims in the region, which transfer between the two
drills between their forces has some of the world’s countries. Tokyo and Ma-
as they shared concerns busiest sea lanes. nila agreed in 2020 on the
about China’s increasingly Japan is especially con- Japanese export of air ra-
assertive military actions in cerned about Chinese dar systems to the Philip-
the region. military and coast guard pine military.
Japanese Defense Minister activity in the East China For Japan, the Philippines
Nobuo Kishi and his Philip- Sea near the Japanese- is geopolitically important
pine counterpart, Delfin controlled Senkaku islands, as China increases its influ-
Lorenzana, also shared which China also claims ence in the region.
concern about Russia’s in- and calls Diaoyu. China, the Philippines, Viet-
vasion of Ukraine and its On Thursday, Japan’s De- nam, Taiwan, Malaysia and
impact in the Indo-Pacific, Delfin Lorenzana, left, Defense Secretary of the Philippines, and fense Ministry said it spot- Brunei have been locked in
and noted that any at- Nobuo Kishi, Defense Minister of Japan attend their meeting at ted a Chinese Y-9 elec- an increasingly tense ter-
tempts to change the sta- Kishi’s ministry in Tokyo, Thursday, April 7, 2022. tronic warfare aircraft flying ritorial standoff in the busy
tus quo by force is unac- Associated Press over the Sakishima islands, waterway for decades.q