The signing on a matrix of mutual withdrawals made by the Yemeni legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council expressed the seriousness and determination of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Alliance countries to achieve the goals of the Alliance supporting the legitimacy, as well as achieving stability and award security, and its insistence on continuing to bring peace at the level of Yemen.

Under the direct auspices and supervision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a matrix of mutual withdrawals and the return of all forces to the agreed locations was signed between the legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council last Thursday. The matrix included the collection of heavy and medium weapons in the city of Aden and their assembly under the direct supervision of the kingdom and joint committees will undertake the task of implementation during a period of no more than twenty days, starting on Saturday.

According to Dr. Ahmed Obaid bin Dagher, Advisor to President Hadi in charge of communicating with the parties to follow up on the implementation of the "Riyadh Agreement", that the legitimate government and the Transitional Council concluded an agreement to exchange prisoners of events last August, under Saudi patronage, as part of joint efforts and another step towards dismantling the elements of tension.

In the middle of the plan that began its implementation last Friday, the Yemeni President will issue a decision to appoint a governor and security director for Aden after consultation in accordance with what was stipulated in the Riyadh Agreement in its political side, which is the important step, where the Yemeni president’s advisor says that this establishes for the next stage and paves the way for the implementation of the Agreement in full.

He pointed out that the minute of the Agreement signed by the legitimate government and the Transitional Council is an introduction to take additional military and security steps that put Aden security in the grip of public security, where all military formations leave Aden and go towards the fronts of the fighting to be replaced by the security services of the Ministry of the Interior. And the minute of the Agreement also allows to President Hadi to initiate consultations to form a political government of competencies, as stipulated in the Riyadh Agreement in its political and economic annex.

Defuse tension

By sponsoring the Kingdom to the sign of the minute of the Agreement and the matrix of withdrawals between the legitimate government and the Southern Transitional Council, tension was defused and the ambition to resort to the use of weapons and violence was curbed and dismantling the causes of armed confrontations witnessed by the interim capital of Aden last August. Also, the initiation of steps to implement the Agreement minute made Aden safer and restored hope in the residents' souls of the city and the liberated governorates and re-adjusted the direction of the Yemeni compass toward dropping the Houthi-Iranian project that caused the devastation.

The Minister of Awqaf and Guidance in the Yemeni government, Dr. Ahmad Atiyyah, considered that the second stage of implementing the Riyadh Agreement represented by signing the matrix of withdrawals and returning the forces to agreed locations between the legitimate government and the Transitional Council is an important step in implementing the Riyadh Agreement.

Atiyyah said to the Riyadh newspaper: "The Riyadh Agreement came to repair the rift and heal the wounds in the one republican national ranks, and establishes to build a united national front to confront the coup of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia, and to restore what remains of the homeland and the return of state institutions to the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and build the new federal Yemen under the leadership of Yemeni President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and under the auspices of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A pivotal role

He explained that the Riyadh Agreement, which was sponsored by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the subsequent implementation guarantees that it undertakes on the ground, reflects the solid relationship between the two brotherly countries, and the Kingdom bears a lot for the sake of Yemen’s stability, noting that the Kingdom has an important and pivotal role in supporting Yemen, its unity and stability, based on the solid geopolitical historic ties between the two countries, and this in itself, gives the government and people of Yemen full confidence in all the efforts that made by it to consolidate stability pillars in Yemen.

Atiyyah expressed his confidence in being the Kingdom is launching in all the historical junctures that Yemen passed through from the standpoint of brotherhood and common neighborhood, and it stands seriously at all levels, whether related to development, relief and military, and the Storm of al-Hazm that the Yemeni President called for and responded to by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdulaziz - may God protect him - and the ensuing Restoration of Hope is a realistic interpretation of the great role the Kingdom plays with the Yemenis.