Yemeni government, STC reach power-sharing deal

Riyadh: Yemen's Southern Transitional Council has struck a power-sharing deal with the internationally-recognised government aimed at ending a conflict simmering within the country's long-running civil war, sources on both sides said Friday.

The deal would see the secessionist Southern Transitional Council (STC) handed a number of ministries, and the government return to the southern city of Aden, according to officials and reports in Saudi media.

Security Belt Forces - dominated by the STC - in August took control of Aden, which had served as the beleaguered government's base since it was ousted from the capital Sanaa by Iran-backed Huthi rebels in 2014.

The clashes between STC and government forces - who for years fought on the same side against the Huthis - had raised fears the country could break apart entirely.

The warring factions have in recent weeks been holding indirect and discreet talks mediated by Saudi Arabia in the kingdom's western city of Jeddah.

"We signed the final draft of the agreement and are waiting for the joint signature within days," an STC official currently in Riyadh told AFP.

Both Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and STC leader Aidarous al-Zoubeidi are expected to attend a ceremony in Riyadh, he added.

A Yemeni government official, declining to be named, confirmed the deal had been agreed and was expected to be signed by Tuesday.

It sets out "the reformation of the government, with the STC included in a number of ministries, and the return of the government to Aden within seven days after the agreement being signed," he told AFP.

Saudi Arabia's Al-Ekhbariya state television said a government of 24 ministers would be formed, "divided equally between the southern and northern governorates of Yemen".

Under the deal, the Yemeni prime minister would return to Aden to "reactivate state institutions", it added.

Al-Ekhbariya said the Saudi-led military coalition which backs the government against the Huthis would oversee a "joint committee" to implement the agreement.

The military coalition led by Saudi and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen in 2015 as the Huthi rebels closed in on Aden, prompting Hadi to flee into Saudi exile.

The conflict has since killed tens of thousands of people - most of them civilians - and driven millions more to the brink of famine in what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Riyadh in recent days appointed a new foreign minister whose complicated portfolio also includes efforts to strike a broader Yemen peace deal.