Saudi Arabia bars former Yemeni president from returning home: Officials

Saudi Arabia has barred former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, along with his sons, aides and military officials, from returning to Yemen for months, informed Yemeni officials says.

On Saturday, The Associated Press cited the Yemeni officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that the ban was put in place as a result of the growing hostility between Hadi and the UAE, which has invaded southern Yemen as a key member of the so-called Saudi-led coalition in the ongoing war against the country.

The coalition has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

Thousands of people have been killed since the onset of the Saudi military campaign more than two and a half years ago, and most of the country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

For most of the war, Hadi and much of his government, which exerts control over Yemen’s southern areas, have been in the Saudi capital Riyadh. However, since the last time he left Yemen for Saudi Arabia in February, he has sent several written requests to Saudi King Salman to ask for permission to return, without receiving any response, a Yemeni security commander said.

According to the commander, Hadi even went to Riyadh airport in August to return to his self-declared capital, Aden, in southern Yemen, but he was turned back from the airport.

"The Saudis have imposed a form of house arrest on them," the unnamed commander said, adding, "When Hadi asks to go, they respond it's not safe for him to return as there are plotters who want to take his life and Saudis fear for his life."

Hadi is reluctant to defy Saudi Arabia, because he "does not want to lose the Saudis," the commander pointed out.

The passports of several of Hadi's officials were initially seized. Though they were later given their passports back, they still cannot leave Saudi Arabia, the commander said.

The report added that Saudi-led coalition spokesman, Colonel Turki al-Malaki, had referred any questions to officials in Riyadh while Hadi's cabinet officials were not accessible.  

Analysts maintain that Hadi’s authority is weakening amid the UAE’s growing power in southern Yemen, where it has been training, financing and arming militants who only answer to it. The Persian Gulf sheikhdom has also set up prisons and security apparatus parallel to Hadi’s government.

An earlier investigation by the AP in the summer documented 18 secret prisons in southern Yemen run by the UAE and its allies, which were notorious for widespread torture.

Read more:

• US interrogates inmates in secret UAE-run jails in Yemen: AP

The UAE denied the allegations, saying all security forces were under Hadi's authority.

According to the informed Yemeni officials, the UAE distrusts Hadi, accusing him of corruption and opposing his alliance with the Islah Party, Yemen's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On November 2, Hadi held a meeting to discuss a cabinet reshuffle in an attempt to push the UAE back by sacking its Emirati-backed ministers, but it has been to no avail so far.  

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