The Yemeni parity government sworn and prepares to return to Aden

Yemen's new power-sharing government was sworn in before the country's internationally-recognized President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi on Saturday, a government official told Xinhua.

Twenty-three of the 24 appointed ministers attended the swearing ceremony and took oath before Hadi in his temporary presidential office in Saudi Arabia's capital of Riyadh, the government official said on condition of anonymity.

Yemen's Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik attended the swearing ceremony and held a meeting with Hadi, the source said.

Hadi "urged the new power-sharing government to find urgent solutions to the country's economic situation and alleviate the suffering of citizens in the government-controlled provinces," he added. 

All members of the new power-sharing government, along with the prime minister, will return to Yemeni southern port city of Aden in the upcoming days, according to the official.

Political sources told "south24" that the new government is expected to return to Aden, the capital of South Yemen, on Tuesday, after it was scheduled to return tomorrow, Monday.

Last week, Hadi issued a decree to form a new power-sharing government led by Maeen Abdulmalik in Yemen, a move that received regional and international welcome.

The new government consisted of 24 ministerial portfolios, divided equally between the northern and southern provinces in Yemen, the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and other political parties.

The new Yemeni government was established in accordance with the terms of the Riyadh Peace Agreement jointly signed in November last year between the Yemeni government and the STC's leaders.

The delegation of the Southern Transitional Council left the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and took a private plane, Sunday evening, to the United Arab Emirates.

For the first time, southerners have participated in a government with the north since, when the northern army invaded South Yemen state in 1994.

STC adheres to its strategic objectives, and stresses work to restore the state of South Yemen, which existed until 1990.

The political and military elite in South Yemen has a distinguished history of running the state, working in the field of combating terrorism and reducing the threat of extremist groups.

Russia had welcomed the participation of southerners in the new parity government, after the implementation of the military part of the Riyadh Agreement, and the withdrawal of the STC's forces from Abyan and Aden.

In 2019, Saudi Arabia persuaded the STC and the Yemeni government to hold reconciliation talks, which succeeded in reaching a deal to form a new technocratic cabinet of no more than 24 ministers.

But numerous obstacles have stood in the way of implementing the deal, which excluded the Houthi militia who are still controlling the capital Sanaa and other northern provinces of the war-torn Arab country.

The impoverished Arab country has been locked in a civil war since late 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country and seized all northern regions including Sanaa.