Aden Times: ‘Riyadh Southern Dialogue’ appears to be a legal farce

ADEN, Feb. 03 (YPA) – The Aden-based newspaper Aden Times, affiliated with the UAE-backed the Southern Transitional Council (STC), has published a report revealing what it described as a “dangerous scheme” being orchestrated behind closed doors in Riyadh against the Southern cause.

Prominent Southern leaders who had recently managed to leave Riyadh, foremost among them senior figure Khaled Masaad Ali — described as the last to join the delegations and the first to return home — who shared what were characterized as “shocking and unprecedented” facts and information about the nature of the ongoing consultations, according to the paper .

According to the sources quoted by Aden Times, the dialogue in Riyadh is “not a political dialogue” but rather a “legal farce and a flawed performance” aimed at undermining Southern aspirations.

In further details, the paper reported claims that the Saudi committee overseeing the talks had engaged in “unprecedented practices,” including pressuring delegations to sign blank documents in preparation for the imposition of pre-determined solutions in favor of the Northern factions.

The sources further claimed that Northern factions were exercising what they called an overbearing, self-serving pragmatism, treating Southerners as if they were “third-class citizens,” while pushing to take complete control of the so-called sovereign ministries in a manner the sources characterized as a “military victor’s logic.”

This striking revelations by Aden Times is seen as the first time a media outlet of such prominence has openly exposed Saudi pressure surrounding the talks.

Observers believe these details could come as a major shock to public opinion in the South and cast the entire round of consultations into doubt, amid claims that the objective is to “legitimize dependency” rather than build a genuine partnership.

@E.Y.M