Yemen Eco | News
The relationships between the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia witnessed an unannounced crisis, on the background of the latter opposing the telecommunications deal that the government signed with the UAE, the matter that led to tensions reached to an extent that Riyadh put conditions for the sake of continuing financial support for the government, including the dismissing of the prime minister Maen Abdulmalik, according to what a number of sources confirmed to “Yemen Eco” website.
A government source stated to “Yemen Eco’” that the latter fears Saudi Arabia would not submit the second payment of the grant of $1,2 billion, which it pledged last August to the Yemeni central bank.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia announced in August to present $266 million as a first payment of the grant, which was expected that it would be fully delivered, and the government would be able to dispose of it and pay its own salaries, but that did not happen.
The source disclosed that the fears of the government come due to the escalating crisis with Saudi Arabia, on the background of the telecommunications deal with the Emirates, explaining that Riyadh got upset severely of the cabinet’s agreement on this deal.
The government agreed last August on an agreement stipulated to sell the Aden Net company’s assets to NX Emirates’ company.
The source said that the crisis reached that Saudi Arabia became stipulating getting rid of the head of the government Maen Abdulmalik, for sake of presenting the second payment of the grant.
The source added, that during the meeting with the Saudi ambassador Mohammed AL-Jaber, which followed the signing of the telecommunications deal with the Emirates, the Saudi ambassador expressed his displeasing of the prime minister Maen Abdulmalik and accused him of betrayal to Saudi Arabia that he said it is Saudi who had nominated him for heading the cabinet and supported him, in spite of that his name was not mentioned and he has not achieved anything so as to qualify him for this position.
Maen had already mentioned in an announcement to Alsharq Qatari newspaper and the website of Alrabi” channel this month, that the government faces financial deficiency, which makes the government unable to pay the state employees’ salaries, after three months.
In accordance to a finical policies’ export, at the ‘’Yemen Eco” website that the announcement of Maen Abdulmalik created activation factors led to the grand collapse that was witnessed in the local currency rate in the government-controlled regions, whereas the exchange rate of the dollar reached in Aden today Thursday to 1495 rail against a dollar for purchasing and selling 1506 rails.
A source in the central bank in Aden said to “Yemen Eco” that despite holding several meetings with the Saudi side during the last period, that the bank does not know till now the date of the second payment delivery from the Saudi grant, and whether it would be handed in or not.
Glimpses have been exposed between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government on the background of the telecommunications deal during the last period, through wide opposition
that faced the deal by the cabinet and the parliamentary members, in spite of these oppositions based on strong reasons, such as legal breaches and the financial suspicions of corruption that make up the grade, in addition to the affecting of the independence of the telecommunications sector and the stat’s sovereignty on it, it was clear that many of the objectors are from the loyalists with Saudi Arabia while the loyalists to the Emirates are supporting the deal.
This division regarding the deal exposed clearly in the crisis of the conference leader “Adel Asgua’a “who was a loyalist to the emirates, then he was polarized by the Saudi side, who disclosed information about the prime minister’s Maen Abdulmalik meeting with Israeli officials within the attempts to pass the deal signed with the Emirate’s NX company, the matter that the head of the leadership council Rashad Alalimi, demanded the Egyptian authorities to detain him and deported him from Egypt, and this was a demand the Emirates was behind it, according to activists, but Saudi Arabia interfered after that and prevented Ashuga’a’s deportation to Aden fearing that he would fall in the hands of the Emirates loyalists, the matter finished to be deported to Spain whereas he had a valid residence visa there.
Sources mentioned that the crisis between the Yemeni government and Saudi Arabia extended also to the political negotiations, whereas the government insisted during the last period to foster stances that do not harmonized with the Saudi trends, as adhering to the three references which have become known that the negotiations exceeding them.
Reassuring that, for instance, informed sources earlier disclosed to “Yemen Eco” that Saudi Arabia did not show any objection to Sana’a demands in the expansion of the flights from and to Sana’a airport on condition of understanding the Yemenia company but the latter did not agree on that easily, but it stopped the flights, then it conditioned its resumption, without its expansion, before the six flights resumption recently, the thing that is interpreted the inharmonious stances between the Saudi side and the government of Yemen.
Earlier, the vice head of the presidential leadership council Aidrous Alzubaidi (loyal to the Emirates) had expressed explicitly this aspect of the crisis between Saudi and the government, when he announced the (Guardian) the British newspaper, last September, that he was called to Riyadh and stayed for two days without meeting the Saudi negotiators, and said “we do not know anything about the negotiations only via the news.”
In the same context, a source stated to” Yemen Eco” that within the Saudi prerequisites of delivering the remain of the financial grant, if the prime minister Maen Abdulmalik was not sacked and to enable “Hadramout Council” affiliated with it, and was formed in the last June, to control the governorate and is considered its political representative.
Earlier, “ Alarab” newspaper affiliated with the UAE intelligence, published in a report observed by “Yemen Eco” that Saudi Arabia has an exceptional interest in the eastern areas of Yemen overlooking the Arab Sea, and it has dispatched forces affiliated with it to Hadramout province, explaining that “ the kingdom seeks to insure a direct passageway towards the Indian Ocean in the post-war period in Yemen” in an indication to what several reports on attempts of spanning a pipeline from its territories to the Arab sea, so as to avoid Hurmuz strait that witnesses tensions within the American Iranian conflict.