Cairo: A Saudi development programme will embark on revamping major facilities in Yemen’s city of Aden, the government’s temporary seat, after a recent peace deal, a Saudi diplomat has said.
Last week, Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC) sealed a power-sharing pact brokered by Saudi Arabia, ending months of feuding between them.
“We hope that the agreement will be a good omen for Yemen and for reaching a comprehensive political solution among Yemeni sides,” Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammad Al Jabir told a gathering in Riyadh, according to Okaz newspaper.
The Yemeni government and the STC are partners to a military coalition, co-led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, fighting in Yemen against the Iran-allied Al Houthi militia. In August, clashes erupted between Yemeni forces and STC loyalists, triggering a rift in the anti-Al Houthi alliance.
Al Jabir, who heads the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Programme for Yemen (SDRPY), told a Saudi-UK stabilisation workshop in Jeddah on Tuesday that the programme will begin rehabilitating the Aden airport and a major hospital in the southern city. “This will create more jobs for our brothers,” he added.
The state-run SDRPY has already carried out 96 development projects in Yemen in different fields, according to the diplomat.
The Yemen deal, officially called the “Riyadh Agreement”, 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 Aden, which the pro-STC forces seized from the government troops in August.
Yemen has been in the grip of a devastating conflict since Al Houthis toppled the government and seized the capital in late 2014.