Yemeni president announces new government's formation

Sana'a: Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi Friday announced the formation of the new technocrat government led by Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, state media reported.

According to the republican decree issued by Hadi, Khaled Bahah will lead the 36-member cabinet, in which ministers of defence, interior, finance and foreign affairs of the previous cabinet were replaced, the report said.

Hadi appointed Major General Mahmoud al-Subayhi, the commander of the fourth military region, as minister of defence, and chief of political security agency (intelligence), Brigadier Jalal al- Ruwaishan, as minister of interior.

The formation of the new government is based on the agreement signed by the political parties earlier this month, in which it mandated Hadi and Bahah to establish the technocrat government.

The announcement came hours ahead of a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting that is expected to address sanctions on spoilers of the Yemeni political transition. The United States last week requested the UNSC to put sanctions against the former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Shiite Houthi leaders who were accused of undermining efforts to solve the current political crisis.

Bahah is the second premier named by Hadi in a week after the Shiite Houthi group rejected Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, director of the presidential office, as prime minister, further deepening a political crisis after the Houthis overran the capital Sanaa in late September.

Meanwhile, thousands of supporters of Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh took to street in Sanaa Friday in protest against US intervention in Yemen's political transition.

Saleh's General People's Congress party Wednesday said the US ambassador to Yemen had delivered a message through a mediator for Saleh to leave the country by Friday or face international sanctions.

However, the White House Thursday denied delivering any threats to Saleh who was accused by Washington of destabilising Yemen.