Sunni group rejects transitional council in Yemen’s Aden

7 years ago

Image of Aden International Airport in southern Yemen [osamahadrami/Twitter]

Yemen’s Scholars Association, an organisation of Sunni scholars formed in 2012, has said it rejects the formation of the Southern Transitional Council in the province of Aden.

Last week, Aden’s former governor Aidarous Al-Zubaidi announced the council’s formation after he was sacked by Yemen’s Saudi-backed President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The transitional council’s formation was rejected by the Yemeni government and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

MA’RIB, YEMEN: Supporters of Legal Government hold the portraits of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi during a protest against the Yemen peace plan proposed by the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed in Ma’rib, Yemen on 3 November, 2016. [Ali Owidha/Anadolu Agency]

The scholars association said in a statement on Saturday that the transitional council is “illegitimate” and it called on Yemenis to “reject the calls for fragmentation and division”.

The association stressed its support for Hadi and the Yemeni government and expressed its thanks to the member states of the Saudi-led coalition as well as the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council for standing by the Yemeni people “to liberate Yemen from the coup”.

Read: Saudi clerics legislate fighting Houthis in Yemen

The Saudi-led military coalition was formed after the Houthi militias, a Shia Yemeni group, stormed the Yemeni capital Sana’a in September 2014 and took over the presidential palace and a number of military installations. A military conflict has raged in Yemen over the past two years between the Saudi-led coalition on the one hand, and the Houthi militias and forces loyal to former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, on the other hand.