Hundreds of citizens organize angry protests in Aden

ADEN, June. 02 (YPA) – Hundreds of residents of the city of Aden, southern Yemen, organized on Thursday popular protest rallies, calling on the Riyadh-formed Presidential Council to leave the southern provinces.

At the rally, the protesters raised slogans denouncing what they described as the policy of “exclusion” practiced by the Council towards the sons of the southern provinces, in a clear indication of the efforts to eliminate the Southern Transitional Council (STC) from the military and political scene.

The protesters threatened to storm al-Ma’ashiq Presidential Palace and expel the council’s members, if they would continue to abolish the southern military components,” in an explicit threat of escalation during the next stage.

These protests come in light of the escalation of conflicts between the STC and the “Riyadh Council,” against the backdrop of the formation of a military and security restructuring committee to integrate the Saudi-led coalition’s armed factions into a unified military bloc, headed by “Haitham Qassem Taher,” the most prominent close to the UAE-backed leader Tariq Saleh in the west coast.

Observers believed that the protests came as part of activating the STC and playing the street card to put pressure on the Riyadh Council, which seeks to integrate the STC factions and dismantle its military power.
AA