New Yemen government holds first meeting in Aden

By Tawfik Ali

ADEN, Yemen

Yemen’s new government convened for the first time in the southern city of Aden on Tuesday under recently-appointed Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr.

The meeting was held one day after members of the government arrived in Aden from Saudi Arabia following more than one year in exile due to the ongoing conflict in Yemen.

Bin Daghr, who defected last year from the camp that supports former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and declared his support for President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, was appointed to the premiership in April.

At Tuesday’s meeting, he vowed to tackle the problems currently facing residents of Aden and other provinces recently recaptured from the Shia Houthi militant group, according to Yemen’s official SABA news agency.

"Unfortunately," he lamented, "Yemen’s legitimate authority [i.e., his government] doesn’t currently control the country’s resources."

Yemen has been racked by chaos and bloodshed since late 2014, when the Houthis and their allies overran capital Sanaa and other parts of the country, forcing President Hadi and his Saudi-backed government to temporarily flee to Riyadh.

In March of last year, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a massive military campaign in Yemen aimed at reversing Houthi gains and restoring Hadi’s embattled government.

In April, the Yemeni government and the Houthis entered into UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait aimed at resolving the conflict, in which more than 6,400 people have been killed and another 2.5 million forced to flee their homes.