President Al-Zubaidi Receives UK Ambassador 

President Aidarous Qassem Al-Zubaidi, the president of the Southern Transitional Council (STC) and Vice-Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), received on Thursday evening Mr. Richard Oppenheim, the ambassador of the United Kingdom (Britain) to Yemen.

The meeting discussed the latest developments in the political process to bring peace to the country in light of the talks that the Saudi and Omani delegations are conducting with the Houthi militia to extend the truce and the cease-fire.

The meeting, too, reviewed the position of the PLC on the talks and made concessions to reach successful negotiations, as well as the steps taken by the PLC to put the cause of the people of the South on the right track in the upcoming political process. In this respect, President Al-Zubaidi reaffirmed that the cause of the South will initially be placed in a special framework in the political process from the very beginning as per guarantees of its speciality and cruciality in a way that meets the aspirations of the people of the South.

The meeting touched on the endeavours made by the British government to support the PLC and the power-sharing government in the humanitarian and security aspects. In this context, Ambassador Oppenheim affirmed his country's keenness to continue its assistance to our country in the fields of food security, women's development, and security aspects, the foremost of which is providing support to the Coast Guard and Border Guard to be able to properly perform the security tasks of seizing the smuggling of weapons and controlling the passage of commercial goods from the sea and land ports.

To the end of the meeting, President Al-Zubaidi highly valued the British role in supporting the PLC and the power-sharing government, hailing the immense efforts made by the British Royal Navy in seizing the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the Houthi militia, and expressing his aspiration for a greater British role in strengthening cooperation in the fields of combating terrorism and backing the government in dealing with the issue of the influx of refugees from the Horn of Africa to our country.

The meeting was attended by Mr. Peter Dalby, head of the political team at the embassy, and from the PLC, Mr. Imad Mohammad, Director of the Office of the Vice-Chairman of the PLC, Mr. Saleh Al-Qaiti, Advisor to the Vice-Chairman of the PLC, and Mr. Zaid Ahmed Nasser from the Office of the President of the STC.