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Yemen: Sanaa government rejects Saudi-led Red Sea alliance 

January 16, 2020 at 3:05 pm

The Al-Dammam frigate of the Royal Saudi Navy, seen in the Gulf of Aden on 24 May 2014 [US Navy / Public Domain]

The Supreme Political Council yesterday denied that Yemen is represented in the newly established Council of Arab and African States, formed by Saudi Arabia, which includes countries bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

In a meeting chaired by President Mahdi Al-Mashat, the Saudi initiative was described as “one of the aggression coalition’s tools to besiege the Yemeni people (…) after its failure and the disclosure of its pretexts for the aggression against Yemen in front of local and international public opinion.”

The Sanaa-based executive body is composed of an alliance between the Houthi Ansar Allah movement and the General People’s Congress Party, which formed the National Salvation Government that currently controls the capital and most of northern Yemen.

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It is a rival political authority to the internationally recognised government of exiled President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi who resides in Saudi Arabia.  Earlier in the month it was reported that Hadi was sentenced in absentia to death by a criminal court in Sanaa for high treason.

The charter, created in Riyadh, was signed by Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Eritrea, Egypt, the UN-recognised government of Yemen and Jordan.

According to the Yemen Press Agency, the Supreme Political Council affirmed its keenness on the security of navigation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab. It also said it will not be drawn into any new entities aimed solely at creating more division and fragmentation of the Arab and Islamic world.