By Mohammad Ayesh
Forced hand for Hadi?
Yemen President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi had to agree to allow Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to help run his country in order to get a meeting with King Salman last April, Yemeni sources have told news site Arabi21.
Hadi's request for the meeting with Salman came after he fired two officials in Aden close to the Emiratis - Aden governor Aidarus al-Zubaidi and Hani Ali bin Braik, a minister of state and general commander of the forces of the UAE-run Security Belt.
As Middle East Eye first reported, Hadi sacked the two after struggles with the UAE over who controlled Aden airport. Just weeks before, Hadi had been refused landing permission at the airport.
Then the Emiratis refused to allow the plane of Brigadier General Muhran Qabati, the commander of the Fourth Brigade which acts as a presidential bodyguard, to leave the airport.
At the time, MEE reported that the Saudis had acted as mediators, trying to calm Hadi and arranging meetings between him, then Saudi defence minister and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed.
Sources now tell Arabi21 that after the airport fallout and the sackings, Hadi repeatedly asked for a meeting with King Salman and was rejected. Then a Saudi official told him he could have a meeting if he signed a paper agreeing to "the formation of a tripartite committee" chaired by Yemen, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia as members, "to participate in the management of the situation of his country".
Hadi signed the agreement and was then transferred to the king’s residence and was told that the meeting would last for only five minutes because the king was busy, according to Arabi21.
But the meeting ended up lasting around 55 minutes, after which Hadi and his office manager, Abdullah al-Alimi, were transferred to a room with a sofa bed, two armchairs and no blankets for 24 hours.
Hadi, the sources confirmed to Arabi21, is banned from returning to Aden and remains in Riyadh.
* Arabic press review is a digest of reports that are not independently verified as accurate by Middle East Eye.
Source: MEE, Edited by Website Team
