Coalition’s “safe exit” initiative seeks to defeat Iran-backed militia

Eslam Mohammed

The Arab coalition, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, supporting legitimacy in Yemen, has said voiced readiness to offer ‘safe exit” for the General People’s Congress (GPC) leaders and elements of the Yemeni Republican Guard willing to part away from the “forced” alliance with the Iran-backed coupist Houthi militias, in Sanaa, to join the legitimate government.

The initiative opens a way out for those who happened to be present at the Houthi-controlled areas. The coalition call offers them a pardon, and freedom as well as protection against the Houthis’ brutality.

Coalition Spokesman Col. Turki Al-Maliki urged in a presser on Monday the GPC and the Yemen Republican Guard leaders who wish to abandon the militia, to contact the coalition command to secure a safe exit for them from the Houthis-controlled regions.

The coalition will lead them to safe areas under Yemen’s legitimate government led by president Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, Col. Al-Maliki said, accusing the militia of not willing to conclude a a peaceful solution to the crisis in the country.

Leader at the GPC Ahmed Al-Maksh

Disrupting the militia

The significance of the coalition move is that it targets disruption of the forces of the coupists, focusing on attracting the militia allies from the former followers of late president Ali Abdullah Saleh who himself remained in alliance with coupists’ leader Abdullah Al-Houthi for years after he was removed from power in February 2012, until the Houthis killed him in December 2017.

The GPC and the Republican Guard were the two wings of Saleh’s supporters; the fist was the political umbrella that brought together huge spectra of the Yemeni people. The latter was the military wing inside the Yemeni Armed Forces which remained loyal to Saleh even after he was overthrown, as power was passed to vice president, Hadi.

After Saleh was killed, the Houthis forced some GPC leaders to stay in Sanaa under their control and to declare support to the militia, and to claim they were the main representatives of the party. Some commanders of the Republican Guard failed to flee the city and catch up with comrades who joined the legitimacy camp, where they formed new elite forces, Guards of the Republic, under Brigadier Tariq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, nephew of the late president. These forces defeated the militia west of Yemen and swept their posts over a short period.

Fears the militia could exploit the initiative

Leader at the GPC Ahmed Al-Maksh expressed fears that the Houthi militia could exploit the coalition initiative to serve its own interest. The Houthis could mix some of their criminal elements among those willing to join the legitimacy side, to help leave Yemen safely,  circumventing the blockade imposed on the Houthis by the Yemeni military and joint resistance, supported by the Arab coalition.

The coalition announced the initiative following mediation from UN representatives and the Sultanate of Oman, in a bid to find a way out for those forced to remain under the Houthi militia, Al-Maksh told Al-Marjie (The Reference).