High ranking official defects from Saudi-led coalition

SANAA, July 7 (YPA) – High ranking political and military officials continued to defect from the ranks of the Saudi-led coalition, the exiled Hadi and his government on the backdrop of what they call “discovering the true objectives of the coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE and its ambitions in Yemen”.

Colonel Abdul Majeed Abu Hatem, who was appointed by exiled Hadi as Deputy governor for Sanaa Province, announced on Saturday his withdrawal from the ranks of the coalition and returned back to the capital Sana’a to join the anti-coalition forces.

Political and military sources confirmed the arrival of Abu Hatem in Sanaa on Saturday. He took the advantage of the general amnesty decree issued by the Supreme Political Council two years ago.

Colonel Abdul Majeed Abu Hatem has called on those still in the ranks of the coalition and the exiled Hadi to “return back to the rank of Yemen, which is an independent state.

He appeared in a recent photograph, extensively circulating by activists on social media platforms , in the center of the capital Sanaa, specifically in the old City of Sana’a, carrying his weapon and ammunition kit, accompanied by a member of the political council of Ansarullah Mohammed al-Bukiti .

Colonel Abdul Majeed Abu Hatem belongs to Nihem district. He joined the Coalition’s ranks after coalition-backed militants reached to his village in the district. But he soon refused to obey the objectives of the Saudi-led coalition, declaring his defection and went back to Sanaa and joining the army forces.

According to Observers, the defections from the exiled Hadi and the coalition is due to the lack of independence of the resolution, and its full subordination to the dictates of the coalition without objection, even in cases affecting Yemeni sovereignty, the interests of Yemen and its people and its unity.

E.M