Barran Press
The Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has reaffirmed its commitment to implementing economic measures and curtailing the "hostile approach" of the Houthi rebels, according to a statement released on Sunday, July 14th, 2024.
The statement came following a meeting between PLC member Othman Mejalli and the Emirati ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed Al-Zaabe. The meeting, according to the official Yemeni news agency Saba, focused on the current situation and Emirati efforts to achieve peace and stability in Yemen.
Mejalli emphasized the PLC's determination to protect the Yemeni people's rights, restore the state, strengthen the economy, preserve the national currency, and limit the Houthis' hostile actions against the banking and financial sectors. He accused the Houthis of systematically undermining the economy, manipulating the currency, plundering citizens' savings, bankrupting commercial banks, and using the financial system in areas under their control for money laundering and financing terrorism.
Mejalli further detailed the Houthis' escalatory tactics, including imposing exchange rate disparities, targeting oil export ports, establishing illegal checkpoints, seizing Yemeni Airways planes, obstructing Hajj pilgrimages, preventing Yemenis from traveling abroad for medical treatment, and obstructing the recent Muscat consultations and prisoner release efforts.
The Emirati ambassador, in turn, confirmed his country's commitment to supporting the Yemeni people and their leadership, represented by the PLC, and its support for unity in decision-making and a unified stance in restoring state institutions and safeguarding Yemen's territorial integrity.
The meeting and the PLC's reaffirmation of its economic measures come after a message from the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, urging the PLC to postpone recent decisions by the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY).
Grundberg's message, obtained by Barran Press, called for the postponement of the CBY's decisions, including the suspension of licenses for six banks that failed to relocate their headquarters to Aden, the temporary capital of Yemen. He expressed concern that these decisions would cut off these banks from correspondent banks and the SWIFT system, hindering their operations.
The UN envoy urged the Yemeni government and the CBY to postpone the implementation of these decisions until at least the end of August and called for a UN-sponsored dialogue between Yemeni parties to address recent economic developments.
In response to Grundberg's message, the PLC held an emergency meeting and reaffirmed its commitment to a clear agenda for participation in any dialogue on economic issues. The PLC stipulated that any such dialogue must include the resumption of oil exports, unification of the national currency, the repeal of all arbitrary measures against the banking sector and the business community, and the release of all prisoners and detainees.
In recent weeks, the CBY, under Governor Ahmed Al-Maabqi, has taken a series of measures, including the revocation of licenses for 26 exchange companies and the closure of their branches indefinitely for violating CBY regulations. These measures followed previous decisions to implement a unified domestic remittance network, ban transactions with 12 unlicensed electronic payment entities, and permanently cease operations of domestic financial remittance networks owned by banks, financial institutions, or exchange companies operating in Yemen.
On May 30th, the CBY in Aden issued a decision to cease transactions with six Yemeni banks after they failed to comply with the 60-day deadline to relocate their headquarters to Aden. The CBY also issued a separate decision urging individuals, businesses, companies, and financial institutions to deposit any pre-2016 currency notes within 60 days.