SANA’A: Yemen’s new cabinet was sworn in yesterday despite calls by former autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh and Shia militias allied to him for it to be boycotted.
Twenty-nine ministers including members of Saleh’s powerful General People’s Congress (GPC) and others seen as close to the Shia Houthi insurgents attended the inauguration at the presidential palace, participants said.
The line-up was sworn in before President Abd Rabuh Mansur Hadi, who succeeded Saleh after he was forced to resign in early 2012 following a year of Arab Spring-inspired protests. Saleh’s GPC had on Saturday urged cabinet nominees from the party to turn down their ministries, as it rejected newly imposed UN Security Council sanctions against him.
The GPC has also sacked Hadi from its leadership, apparently in retaliation after accusations he had solicited the sanctions announced on Friday against Saleh and two Huthi commanders for threatening peace.
Six ministers were absent from the swearing in ceremony, with Prime Minister Khaled Bahah saying three of them were abroad and three others turned down their appointments.
The GPC on Saturday called for members to turn down the cabinet posts, while the Huthis rejected the government and demanded a reshuffle to dismiss ministers they consider unqualified or corrupt.
The new 36-member cabinet was formed as part of a UN-brokered peace deal under which the Houthis, also known as Ansarullah, are supposed to withdraw from Sanaa, which they seized on September 21.
On November 1, the main parties signed an agreement brokered by the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, for the formation of a government of technocrats.
AFP
