The speech of his Excellency President Rashad Al-Alimi on the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the Unity Day of Yemen,

  Aden :

In the name of Allah the most benevolent the most merciful

Our great Yemeni people at home and abroad,

All our sincere congratulations to you on this glorious National Day, the twenty-second of May, in which we speak to you out of pride and fulfillment of the sacrifices of our great leaders who culminated the goals of the revolutions of September 26 and October 14 with achieving the dream and emphasizing the unity of the path and destiny.

Every year we meet on the eve of this occasion to recall the greatness of that immortal noblemen, to express our gratitude for their courage in making this achievement after years of struggle and sacrifice, to express apology for the grave mistakes that accompanied this path, to show our openness to all options to reform this path, and enable our people to achieve their aspirations, and determine their political status, their economic, social and cultural development.

 

Our southern brothers were forerunners towards unity, upbringing, and struggle. They remained loyal to it, they cannot be wrong in that, and today they are right to rally around their just cause after the course of the unitary project deviated, and its content and participatory value were missed after the summer 1994 war.

Therefore, it was the twenty-second of May, and it will remain a  national day for the sake of those sincere dreamers in the south and the north, and for the value of the unity that we need in all the details, as was evident in the dialogues and discussions of the southern partners recently, and in our collective work to confront the threat of the Houthi militia that lurks at our doors in preparation to invade the southern liberated governorates, under the false slogan of "unity or death", which the militias raise to justify their attacks.  Just as they were and still raise the slogan "resisting aggression" to cover up their war against the Yemeni people, destroy their capabilities, continue their egregious violations of human rights, profit from the war economy, and trading from the suffering of the people, seeking the help of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Hezbollah militia, who have persevered in destroying our country and making it the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, since they worked together by turning against the national consensus in September 2014. The Houthis continued to reject any opportunity for peace, reconciliation, and coexistence between Yemenis.

 

In my capacity as Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, I affirm that celebrating Yemeni Unity Day is not a tendency to political intrigue or exclusion, but rather a commitment to the power of the constitution, the legitimate legal status of the country recognized regionally and internationally, the references of the transitional period, and the lofty goals formulated by Yemenis in the south and north before Six decades.

The time has come, dear fellow citizens, to learn the lesson, to be fair, and to tell the truth that the national symbols that fought for unity did not do so in order to replace the authority of a certain class with a tyrannical one, but rather in order to restore power to the people, secure and protect it with broad participation, equal citizenship, rights and freedoms.

 

Therefore, we are fully aware that when policies are deviated from goals, convictions are changed, and commitments and grievances are exaggerated, it is our duty to respond to these changes, serve people and achieve their aspirations as a collective action that recognizes the other, its right to participate and disagree, and is committed to correcting the course, according to the free popular will.

 

O great Yemeni people,

In addition to our central battle of restoring state institutions and ending the coup of the Houthi militia backed by the Iranian regime, we have pledged, in accordance with the references of the transitional period, not only to work on decision sharing, planning and implementation at the summit level, but also to transfer power and delegate it to the governorates  and districts in accordance with best related practices and standards. 

On this occasion, I commend the position of my brothers, my fellow members of the Presidential Leadership Council and all the forces that support the southern cause, and their dedication to serving this just cause, making it a basis for a solution according to the announcement of the transfer of power, the agreement, and the results of the Riyadh consultations.

 

In confirmation of this approach, we have issued a number of decisions aimed at reparating the damage, restoring consideration for the partnership, and achieving justice, in accordance with the outcomes of the National Dialogue, and the document of guarantees for resolving the southern issue, by returning and settling the conditions of more than 52,000 employees who were dismissed from their jobs in the southern governorates since the summer war, in 1994. We have directed the government to take all coordinated measures with the concerned departments, funds, and the donor community to secure the financial resources resulting from these decisions.

During the coming period, we are scheduled to proceed with implementing a series of measures that address more grievances, within the framework of a broader policy aimed at achieving institutional reform and strengthening decentralized governance throughout the liberated governorates.

On top of that, the federal state, which was adopted by the outcomes of the National Dialogue Conference, is an important ground that should be adhered to and built upon to achieve justice, according to which the parties apologized, admitted the mistake and ensured that it would not be repeated.

 

 

Dear fellow citizens,

Our fateful battle to restore state institutions will remain our overarching goal. We will move forward in uniting the people at home and abroad against the coup and terrorism of the Houthi militia, and the Iranian project that supports it.

We cannot leave the advocates of ruin and the militias controlling Sana’a with any opportunity to break the community and to trump the cause of Yemeni unity. However, those militias imposed a divisive reality with their unilateral and deadly measures, starting with preventing the circulation of the new edition of the currency, closing roads between cities, and imposing levies and customs fees between northern, southern governorates, liberated and those under their control, changing the school curricula, and reshaping the looted institutions on a family, sectarian, and regional basis.

 

That is why we all must, after three decades have passed since the establishment of our current political entity; to distinguish wisely and courageously between the true unitary tendency that views Yemenis as brothers, equals and partners, and the destructive unilateralism that splits the country and its people into two unequal parts: masters and slaves, center and periphery, origin and branch, conquerors and followers.

The constitutional oath that I and my brothers, my fellow members of the Presidential Leadership Council took, obliges us to work for all Yemenis in the north and south. We must not allow our capabilities to be exhausted in inter-conflicts, and we must work to fortify our internal front, in fulfillment of the sacrifices of our people, our armed forces, the popular resistance, and our loyal brothers whose blood was shed in defense of our cause, our freedom and our dignity.

 

Dear fellow citizens, the strong, cohesive South with the rest of the liberated cities and regions, constitute an additional starting point for the broad Republican alliance, after the southern governorates turned into a haven for millions of displaced people fleeing the oppression of the Houthi militia, and a land for those seeking a safe life and decent livelihoods, from the people of the northern governorates.

The existence of the legitimate authority, represented by the Presidential Leadership Council, the government, and modern national institutions, is the decisive guarantor for the continuation of political support for our just causes, the flow of aid, and the facilitation of the movement of Yemenis across countries and continents.

 

Dear great Yemeni people,

Amidst all these developments and challenges, we must not get distracted in the Presidential Leadership Council and the government from our tasks related to the lives of citizens. We must work to improve services, sources of livelihood, alleviate suffering, control inflation, and stabilize the national currency, which will receive encouraging support from our brothers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the international community.

Fulfilling the necessary governmental interventions will remain a top priority, foremost among which is the continued payment of employee salaries, preparation for the summer with appropriate generation of electric power, provision of oil derivatives for it in Aden and other governorates, and securing funds to import life-saving basic commodities.

 

We will also proceed in our serious engagement with the peace efforts led by our brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, along with the option of deterring any hostile threat from the Houthi militias.

We call on the political forces to continue strengthening their alliance around the Presidential Leadership Council, which represents a national and political consensus for this stage.  The goal of ending the coup, restoring state institutions, serving people and alleviating their suffering, must be a comprehensive framework, and not be absorbed in arguments, rhetorical and media debates.

 

In conclusion, dear fellow citizen, on behalf of all of you, I would like to renew my thanks and appreciation to our brothers in the countries of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their continuous support to our people, their political leadership, and their aspirations for peace, stability and development.

I also would like to express my congratulation, and gratitude for the role of the heroes of the armed forces, security and popular resistance, in the epic of steadfastness on the road to victory, with God's help.

Mercy for the martyrs, and healing for the wounded.

Peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you.