The Minister of Transport, Mr. Saleh Al-Jabwani, said that the agreement signed in Riyadh between the Yemeni legitimate government and the so-called UAE-backed “Southern Transitional Council STC” requires the disarmament of militias and the transfer of military and security brigades outside of Aden. But this was not implemented, confirming the militias insistence on continuing to control Aden.
In statements to the “Without Borders” program, al-Jabwani added that the UAE’s logistical and political support to militias in the south continues, and that the provisions of the Riyadh agreement have not been fulfilled at all except the return of the prime minister, which is a formal return.
He stressed that the Prime Minister and a group of ministers reside in the presidential palace of Al-Maasheq in Aden, and they are surrounded by the Transitional Council militia. Adding that the Emirates and the Transitional Council have specified who returns and who do not return from ministers to Aden, preventing the ministers who confronted them during the coup from returning.
According to al-Jabwani, the agreement came to weaken the forces fighting in the field with legitimacy for the unity of Yemen, adding that President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi’s recognition of the Transitional Council in the south was under force.
Al-Jabwani said that the Emirati-backed separatist project in Shabwa was defeated and that the militias fled.
He added: The Emirati warplanes bombed the national army after defeating the separatist militias, and after that, the confrontation has become between the Yemeni legitimacy and the UAE.. He confirmed that the legitimate military force is still present and can confront and defeat the militias of UAE.
On the Emirati withdrawal from Aden, Al-Jabwani said that those who were withdrawn are some Emirati soldiers, but the UAE is still managing the situation in Aden through its officers and militias affiliated with it.
He added that the UAE project in Yemen fell militarily within 48 hours, despite the UAE spending about 48 billion Saudi riyals within four years.
Al-Jabwani touched on the issue of Shabwa governorate and the Emirati abuses in the governorate. Al-Jabwani said that the entire province has become under the control of legitimate government, and that the Emiratis are seeking to create chaos in it by distributing the weapons they enter through the port of Balhaf, and that the UAE has turned the gas facility into a center of detention and torture.
The Yemeni minister accused the UAE of supporting al-Qaeda in the Abyan governorate in order to carry out road blocking activities and to target legitimate forces passing from the governorate towards Aden.
He explained that Abu Dhabi freed 13 dangerous elements of Al Qaeda from prisons in Aden, noting that the government has the names of the elements freed by the UAE, and that the Americans have been informed of this.
On President Hadi and his position of what is happening, Al-Jabwani stressed that the components affiliated with legitimacy are feeling reassuring for the life of President Hadi in Riyadh, given that his legitimacy is important to the Saudis. He added that the president is facing pressure from the leaders of the coalition while he is in a conflict with the Emirates, and that Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed created a dispute with him to justify his actions in Aden.
