Understanding the Riyadh Agreement - World - Al-Ahram Weekly - Ahram Online
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The Saudi-brokered agreement between the Yemeni government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) marks the end of a chapter in the Yemeni conflict that flared into open hostilities in August. To the STC, it might seem like the end of a much longer chapter dating back three decades to Yemen’s north-south conflict in the 1990s.
It took nine weeks of arduous talks, diplomatic shuttling and tugs-of-war on the ground to yield this new addition to the agreements on the Yemeni question. The Riyadh Agreement sets out the principles governing the relationship between the two sides and the measures they are expected to take in the forthcoming period under the supervision of the Arab Coalition.
It includes three annexes addressing various political, military and security, and economic points. From its preamble to its annexes, it accomplishes five strategic goals.
First, it lays out a clear roadmap and timeframe to end the conflict between the Hadi government and the STC. It re-engineers the status of the south within the framework of the Yemeni state and draws upon and reaffirms three frames of reference governing the Yemen question, namely the Gulf Initiative, the Yemeni National Dialogue and UN Security Council Resolution 2216.
As a result, the agreement does more than “contain” the crisis in the south, and instead resolves the “southern question” in the context of the Yemeni crisis as a whole. Final judgement on its success is contingent on the parties’ sustained commitment to implementing its provisions.