Yemen

Southern Yemen Movement Boycotts Reconciliation Talks in Sana’a

Southern Yemen Movement Boycotts Reconciliation Talks in Sana'a
The Southern Yemen Movement renewed its call for autonomy, and said that it will not take part in the national reconciliation talks due to be held in Sana’a in the near future.

Qasim Askar Gibran, the secretary general of the Supreme Council of the Southern Movement in Aden, told Arab-language Aljazeera television network that his movement will not attend the reconciliation talks which has been initiated by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) and wants freedom, independence, separation of Southern Yemen and its autonomy.

“This initiative is not related to us and it does not resolve the problem of Southern Yemen; rather it is just a solution to resolve the crisis between the government and the Northern Yemen’s opposition forces,” Gibran said.

“Southern Movement proposes drafting of a new initiative plan based on the principle of negotiations between the Northern and Southern governments of Yemen and returning of sovereignty to the government of the South,” he added.

Many Southerners complain that the Northerners based in the capital Sana’a have discriminated against them and usurped their resources for decades. Most of Yemen’s fast-declining oil reserves are in the South, which once was an independent state. The central government denies a discriminatory policy.

The so-called national reconciliation talks, a PGCC-brokered deal led to former Yemen’s ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh’s quitting in February after a year of protests against his rule and allowed his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to take office.

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