Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2016 01:13:04 +0200
U.N. peace plan for Yemen seems to sideline exiled president
A U.N. peace proposal to end a 19-month war in Yemen appears aimed at sidelining exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and setting up a government of less divisive figures, according to a copy seen by Reuters.Hadi fled the armed advance of the Iranian-allied Houthi movement in March 2015 and has been a guest of neighboring Saudi Arabia ever since.A U.N. Security Council resolution a month later recognized him as the legitimate head of state and called on the Houthis to disarm and quit Yemen's main cities.But the Houthis and their allies in Yemen's army have said he will never return, accusing him and his powerful vice president, Ali Mushin al-Ahmar, of corruption.The latest peace plan submitted by U.N. envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed suggests Ahmar would step down and Hadi would agree to become little more than a figurehead after a Houthi withdrawal from the capital Sanaa.It was not immediately clear if the men had been consulted on the plan. But their supporters have in the past insisted that past agreements recognizing Hadi as leader must be respected."As part of the signing of a complete and comprehensive agreement, the current Vice President will resign and President Hadi will appoint a new Vice President," the document says."After the completion of the withdrawal from Sanaa and the handing over of heavy and medium weapons (including ballistic missiles) Hadi will transfer all his powers to a Vice President, and the Vice President will appoint a new Prime Minister ... (who will form) a national unity government," it added.SYMBOLIC ROLThe proposal would technically confirm Hadi in office, as stipulated by the U.N. resolution, but leave him in reality with only a symbolic role.Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr said that the government had not received a draft of the peace proposal from the United Nations, according to state news agency Sabanew.Government officials have said they are unwilling to legitimize what they see as a Houthi "coup"."We emphasize our conviction that all proposals are doomed to failure if (they don’t reject the) excesses of the coup, which is the mother of all these calamities and the root of the evils," Abdullah al-Alimi, a senior official in Hadi's office, wrote on Twitter.