Asia

Asia

Yemeni president names new PM to form gov't

07 October 2014 23:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi named Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, director of his office, as the prime minister to form a government, the official Saba news agency reported on Tuesday, two weeks after the Shiite Houthi rebels overran the capital, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

In a presidential decree issued on Tuesday night, Hadi named bin Mubarak as new prime minister after consulting his advisors that represent all political parties in Yemen, Saba reported.

Bin Mubarak, born in 1968 in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, is a professor with Sanaa University and holds a PhD in business administration.

On Sept. 21, the government and Shiite Houthi group signed a cease-fire deal in Sanaa, both agreeing to stop fighting in the capital, nominate a prime minister within a week afterwards and form a technocrat government within a month.

However, the Houthi group refused to hand over towns and cities seized in the past weeks and has taken over almost all state institutions in Sanaa since then.

The deal empowers the Houthi rebels as it allows the group to play an important role in forming a cabinet and determining the future control of the army.

The peace agreement put an end to deadly clashes between the rebels and the army supported by Sunni militia. The violence broke out northwest of Sanaa on Tuesday and has left about 400 people killed, including about 50 civilians.

Last year, bin Mubarak was elected as the secretary general of Yemen's national reconciliation dialogue conference which is comprised of representatives of all political parties and civic groups and was destined to carry out reforms in the unrest-hit country.

The conference, which was launched after a year-long deadly fighting that killed over 2,000 people, was designed to pull the nation out of a potential civil war and seek just solutions for the southern separate forces and northern rebels. It ended in endorsing a new federal political system in the country in January.