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Children are disinfected in Sanaa to fight the coronavirus before receiving food rations
Separatists in southern Yemen have renounced the self-government they declared in April.
The separatists, the Southern Transitional Council (STC), agreed to the move in an agreement with the internationally recognized government.
The agreement gives the STC representation in a new Yemeni government that will be formed within 30 days.
It could also heal a rift in the Saudi-led coalition backing the government against Houthi rebels in the north.
The agreement is based on a ceasefire between the separatists and the government signed in June.
The southern separatist issue has strained the Saudi-led anti-Houthi alliance. The STC is backed by the United Arab Emirates, which is also part of the Saudi Arabian coalition.
Meanwhile, the United Nations warned that time is running out for any possible deal to end the largest conflict between the Houthis and the Saudi-led coalition, which has left thousands dead and displaced millions. The UN has been trying to get the warring parties to start peace talks.
“There is a real risk that these negotiations will fade,” Yemen’s envoy Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Tuesday.
The severe food shortage caused by the conflict is worsening the impact of the coronavirus.
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The Saudi-led coalition and the internationally recognized government have been at war with the Houthis since 2014. Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi lives in exile in Riyadh.
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The STC declared self-government in April
The conflict within a conflict involving the UAE-backed STC presented an additional complication.
The STC and government forces have disagreed in the port city of Aden and other southern regions. In June, the STC took control of an island known as the “Galapagos of the Indian Ocean” and famous for its amazing flora and fauna.
The latest agreement includes the STC, which took over Aden last August, and the government implemented a negotiated agreement for the first time in November: the Riyadh Agreement.
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The new technocrat government will be divided equally between the north and south and will include STC ministers, the Saudi Arabian news agency SPA reported. All military forces must leave Aden.
President Hadi also appointed a new governor for the city, the current seat of government power. The capital Sanaa has long been occupied by the Houthis, who are linked to Iran.
Saudi Arabia described the latest agreement as a positive step and an acceleration of the Riyadh Agreement, which collapsed due to the failure to agree to representation in a new government.
Any agreement is good news for the suffering people of Yemen. But there is also skepticism.
The parties to the conflict in the south now have to demonstrate that they can and will move faster in the next 30 days, to form a new cabinet and forge a new calm, than they did in the months since the Riyadh Agreement It was first signed under considerable pressure from Saudi Arabia. in November.
It can be even more difficult now after everything that has happened in the past few months. But Saudi Arabia is desperate to find a way out of this quagmire: an even more difficult deal with the Houthis in the north is the priority.
UN envoy Martin Griffiths, who has been conducting endless rounds of face-to-face and virtual negotiations, this week warned of a “real risk that these negotiations will fade away.” Yes, that means this colossal crisis could get worse, much worse. That should be the greatest pressure of all on Yemen’s many leaders.
