Al-Kathiri Meets with British Researcher Bill Patrick

Mr. Ali Abdullah Al-Kathiri, Acting President of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and Chairman of the National Assembly, met on Wednesday in his office in the capital, Aden, with British researcher Mr. Bill Patrick.

In the beginning of the meeting, which was attended by the head of the Research and Decision Support Center (RDSC) of the STC, Mr. Lutfi Shatara, and his deputy, Dr. Mohammad Jaafar bin Al-Sheikh Abu Bakr, Mr. Al-Kathiri welcomed Mr. Bill Patrick, listened to his impressions of the exploratory visits to the capital, Aden, and the governorates of Hadramaut and Almahra, and praised his eagerness to come to the South, to closely see the political period it is going through, and to get acquainted with the organizational structure of the STC.

During the meeting, Al-Kathiri gave a comprehensive presentation of the situation in the South, and the important turning points that the southern liberation revolution has gone through since the occupation of the South in the summer of 1994, through the launch of the peaceful movement in 2007, and the Houthi invasion of the South in 2015, up to the historic declaration and establishment of the STC in 2017 with which the people of the South culminated in a long process of unrelenting struggle, extending for more than two decades, and then the phase of building the Southern Armed Forces, and the subsequent phases led by the Council with all competence, during which the cause of the people of the South was placed at the forefront of the pivotal issues, and the fundamental of any exerted efforts to bring about peace to the country and the entire region.

Al-Kathiri asserted the STC’s adherence to developing the special negotiating framework for the cause of the people of the South in the political process, indicating that the independence of the South with its state and identity will ensure the stability of neighbouring countries and the world. Moreover, he highlights that the South’s relations with the official brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are strategic and that the STC will never accept a return to the pre-2015 era.

The Chairman of the National Assembly pointed out that the STC, led by President Aidarous Qassem Al-Zoubaidi, will definitely continue the dialogue with all the southern forces regardless of their various affiliations and orientations, and give guarantees to all components that the rights of each one are preserved and that all are partners in shaping the features of the aspired federal state of the South, which was endorsed by the National Charter and the outcomes of the Southern National Dialogue.