YemenEXtra
YemenExtra

Why UN envoy to Yemen cancel his visit to the south

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YemenExtra

Y.A

The new United Nations envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, postponed his planned visit to Aden because of what he called the “security concerns” delayed highlighting the security chaos in the city and exacerbating the political conflict between local forces. According to available information, the postponement of the visit is due to , in addition to those fears, Griffith’s lack of clear perception of how to deal with the issue of the South, through the local and regional differences , so that Griffith, who was supposed to meet with representatives of most of the southern powers, faces an obstacle that  forming a unified southern delegation to represent the southern issue in any future negotiations.

The Southern Transitional Council (headed by Aidroos Al-Zubaidi), funded by the UAE, claims to be the only representative of the South, disregarding the rest of the historical components and factions of the Yemeni fugitive President, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and many symbolic figures In the southern provinces. However, Saudi Arabia and the United States reject the monopoly of the “transitional council” to represent the south . This was expressed by the American ambassador in Yemen, Matthew Toler, last Tuesday evening, from Cairo, in response to a question on the representation of the Southern Movement in the forthcoming negotiations , saying that “The problem is that there are parties that claim that they are alone that should represent the south, and this is not true, “adding that” monopoly of a specific category to represent the south is the seeds of future failure. “

While the southern parties are expected to ask for the secession of the south, it is a matter of bidding on each other. The external engagement of these parties will ultimately lead to acceptance of political realism, which requires that any separatist scenario must have the approval of local, regional and international actors influencing decision-making and take into account the geopolitical map of the region, On their basis. In this context, it seems clear that Riyadh is still opposed to any secessionist movement in the south because of its historical fear of the south turning in a direction other than its direction, especially since the historical relationship between the former People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen or South Yemen and Saudi Arabia was tense And that the sensitivity of the people of the South towards the Kingdom due to previous wars between the two sides is still the same. Ev.

In the midst of these political complexities, the security chaos in the “temporary capital” is escalating, through the systematic assassinations of senior officers, university professors and officials of certain factions affiliated with the southern movement, as well as increasing threats to journalists. It is noteworthy that ,recently, repeated targeting of religious men and imams of mosques, according to a detailed statistics published by the Ministry of Awqaf and Guidance in the government of Hadi last Monday, 25 religious men and preachers, since 2016.
These liquidation operations are accompanied by the expansion of seizing the land and building randomly on the historical sites and monuments and even graveyards, threatening catastrophic consequences in the long term, although the ones who are responsible for these blatant abuses are influential figuers and high ranking . Moreover, there is the almost total absence of state institutions and the great deterioration in services, especially electricity, water, health and education, and the inability to pay the salaries of employees on a regular basis; therefore, many blame the UAE for being the first ruler of the “liberated provinces”, provinces under its control,. Remarkably, the past few days have witnessed a new form of discontent against Abu Dhabi, represented in writing hostile slogans to it on the walls of many squares and public places, describing it as the occupation and demanding it to leave the south. The UN envoy visited besieged Sanaa by land and air, and cancelled  his visit to Aden , the so called «libearted city », is «a great disaster», the head of the Political Bureau of the Southern Movement, Fadi Baoum’s point of view of the issue.

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