Yemen’s STC to hand over seized funds to Arab alliance
The move comes in compliance with Riyadh peace deal sealed in November
Cairo: Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC) will hand over to an Arab alliance fighting Iran-allied Al Houthi militia funds seized by the council’s affiliated security forces, STC spokesman Nizar Haitham has said.
On Wednesday, the STC security forces had seized in Yemen’s southern city of Aden containers of money belonging to the Yemeni Central government.
STC head Aidarous Al Zubaidi has ordered the money be handed over to a Saudi force operating as part of the Arab alliance in Aden, Haitham said in a statement.
The handover comes as a gesture of STC compliance with a peace deal signed by the council and the Yemeni government in the Saudi capital Riyadh in November, added the spokesman.
“The STC is keen to render successful the appreciated efforts being made by the Saudi-led alliance,” he said in a press statement.
The Saudi-brokered pact, formally dubbed the “Riyadh Agreement”, aims at ending a feud between the Yemeni government and the STC.
Both sides are partners to the military coalition, co-led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, fighting in Yemen against Al Houthis.
In August, clashes erupted between Yemeni forces and STC loyalists, triggering a rift in the anti-Al Houthi alliance.
The Riyadh deal includes forming a 24-strong government equally composed from Yemen’s southern and northern provinces.
It also provides for the return of the government to the interim capital Aden, which the pro-STC forces seized from the government troops in August.