The De-facto Truce: South Yemen is the «Victim of the Distorted Peace»

There is no doubt that South Yemen has been so far the biggest loser from the continuous application of the collapsed truce from one side in favor of the Houthis. 

Halting oil production threatens to duplicate the tragic sufferings of millions of people who have already suffered from arduous and suffocating crises for years, especially in the field of basic services, food prices and the salaries. 

In the televised interview, Al-Alimi said that the Yemeni government will face “problems and shortages” to pay the employees’ salaries as of this month due to the discontinuation of oil revenues because of the Houthi attacks. 

Later, in a virtual meeting of PLC’s members, the Presidential Leadership Council stressed that it is committed to continue making the economic and financial reforms as well as paying the employees’ salaries”. [10]

Over the past years, the military employees in South Yemen have faced irregularity in receiving their salaries for more than 6 months a year sometimes. Moreover, civil sector employees, especially teachers, call for the increase of their low salaries.

Southern political analyst Nasr Al-Esae described the current circumstances as being "a conspiracy against South Yemen".

He told "South24 Center" that "there is another type of conspiracy against South Yemen. South has to prepare for this battle and for any military, political and economic equations intended to impose certain conditions that impede development in South Yemen".

"There is an approach adopted by the international community and the UN to put an end to the crisis in Yemen. The Houthis exploit this approach to gain new concessions," he said.

He added: "The Houthis have sought to liquefy the political process and delay reaching a solution of the crisis through imposing certain conditions including the enslavement of the people in North and the colonization of the people in South".

On the other hand, political analyst Nabil Al-Soufi believes that the collapsed truce is not the reason for South Yemen’s problems.

He told "South24 Center": "South Yemen's suffering is neither because of the truce nor targeting the legitimacy's resources but it is due to the legitimacy's debilitated vision in addition to the regional confusion".

He added: "STC achieves important political leaps. It only has to be more cohesive, to take into account regional conditions on the one hand, and to continue mobilization and arranging South Yemen’s reality".

He believes that "STC has done its best to pressure but regional and international political complexities require more cohesion".

Al-Esae believes that South Yemen enjoys many points of strength that can be employed to influence the regional and international forces. This included the prominent and only role of the Southern forces in the war against "terrorist and extremist groups".

He said that "counterterrorism is not the responsibility of the Southern forces alone but it is also a regional and international task because this terrorist group not only targets South Yemen but the regional and international security in general".

He added: "Many international parties don’t look at the Yemen crisis except through the counterterrorism file and to benefit from the Yemeni crisis by political quarrels with some regional forces.

With the lack of any positive impact of the previous truce and its subsequent de-facto one in South Yemen, it seems that the full withdrawal from any remaining obligations of the truce represents one of the most important lines of defense to protect South Yemen’s people from the new war declared by the Houthis.

It is likely that any considerations or regional or international efforts will at best reach a new truce that aligns with the “radical" Houthi conditions which basically target South Yemen’s resources.