A major reshuffling of the heads of the Yemeni government has taken place, resulting to the dismissal of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's prime minister and vice president ahead of United Nations' lead peace talks with the Houthi militants.
According to reports, President Hadi replaced Vice President Khaled Bahah with the army's political general Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar to take over his place. Hadi also appointed lawmaker Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr as his prime minister. Prior to the changes, Hadi had been involving Ahmar in his active decision-making and appointed him as the armed forces deputy commander in an act to support the tribes and troops in the rebel-held region around the country.
There have been no public explanations on why President Hadi made his move but speculations from the international media say it is because of the differences that developed between Hadi and Bahah over the campaign and strategies to end the civil war that the country is undergoing as per Voice Of America.
The quarrel between the two parties started when Bahah rejected the president's plan on reshuffling the government without gaining his approval. Bahah, on the other hand, has been said to be favoring a political settlement to the country's conflict. This conflict started in September 2014 when the Houthi rebels took the capital Sanaa and remove the former president. According to the Middle East Eye, Hadi has started to reshuffle his cabinet, appointing new foreign and interior minister in order to pacify the tension between him and Bahah.
As reported by the National, Brig. General Al Ahmer was the commander of the First Armoured Division in Sanaa before he joined the battle against former president Ali Abdullah in 2011. By the month of February, Ahmer was then appointed as the deputy supreme commander of the Yemeni command.
Saudi, on the other hand, had started an all-out war against the Houthi rebels. Saudi targeted the rebels but damaged the entire Yemeni communities. More than 6,000 people died in the war which involved mostly civilians.
