After elements loyal to what was known as the Southern Transitional Council attempted to storm the presidential palace in Aden, Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council said it would not tolerate chaos in the city or across the southern provinces, accusing regional forces of involvement in suspicious moves to destabilize the situation and fracture national unity.
A senior source at the Presidential Leadership Council said the state leadership viewed with deep regret what it described as incitement, armed mobilization and repeated attempts by outlaws to attack state institutions in the interim capital, Aden.
The violence left casualties a day after the new government convened its first meeting and began outlining priorities to improve conditions in the liberated provinces, upgrade services and strengthen citizens’ livelihoods.
Security forces, the source said, exercised maximum restraint, dispersing gatherings that tried to block roads, stir unrest and target security personnel as they carried out their duty to protect sovereign facilities and maintain public order in line with the law.
The source expressed profound sorrow over the casualties resulting from what he called an organized escalation, saying those who funded, armed and incited the unrest, and who sent soldiers in civilian clothing into confrontation with security forces, bear full political, moral and legal responsibility for further bloodshed and for messing with the security of the interim capital and the interests of its residents.
While reaffirming full respect for the constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful expression, the presidential source warned that attacks on national institutions, obstruction of their work or attempts to use street pressure to achieve illegitimate political goals amount to an assault on constitutional legitimacy and citizens’ interests.
Such actions, the source said, would be met firmly and would not be allowed to recur under any circumstances.
The source said the new government’s meeting in Aden sends a clear signal that the state is moving ahead with restoring the regular functioning of its institutions from within, entrenching stability and building on Saudi efforts to normalize conditions, improve public services and roll out a package of quick-impact development projects to open what he described as a promising new phase for citizens.
They added that the timing of the escalation, coinciding with tangible improvements in services and preparations for a Saudi-sponsored southern conference, raises serious questions about the suspicious role of certain regional forces seeking to reignite chaos and derail efforts to unify national ranks against what he described as the existential threat posed by the Iran-backed Houthi militias.
The state will not allow Aden and the southern provinces to become arenas for chaos or platforms for suspicious regional projects, the source said, pledging to press ahead, with Saudi support, to protect citizens and their vital interests and to deter any activity aimed at undermining security and stability, obstructing reconstruction or hindering the restoration of state institutions.
The source urged residents of Aden and other liberated provinces to cooperate with security agencies to safeguard the gains achieved and not to be drawn into calls for chaos issued by fugitives from justice and dissolved entities backed from abroad, referring to what was known as the Southern Transitional Council.
“The future of the south will not be built by attacking or paralyzing state institutions,” the presidential source said. “It will be built by rebuilding them, improving their services and engaging consciously and responsibly in the anticipated southern dialogue.”
