DUBAI: Yemen´s internationally-recognised government on Monday named foreign minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak as the new prime minister in a surprise appointment that analysts say will likely anger the country´s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
Bin Mubarak replaces Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed at a time of rising tensions in the Arabian Peninsula´s poorest country following a spate of Red Sea attacks by Huthi rebels which have prompted retaliatory strikes by the Unites States and Britain.
A decree issued by Yemen´s presidential council and carried by the official Saba news agency announced bin Mubarak´s appointment as premier and assigned the outgoing prime minister to the post of presidential advisor.
It did not give a reason for the move.
Bin Mubarak, Yemen´s former ambassador to the US, is widely seen as a staunch adversary of the Huthi rebels, who abducted him in 2015 and held him captive for several days.
He previously served as chief of staff of Yemen´s presidential office and was also appointed as the country´s envoy to the United Nations in 2018.
Mohammed Al-Basha, a Yemen expert for the US-based Navanti research group, said bin Mubarak is seen as one of the “architects of the Saudi-led coalition” that intervened against Huthis in 2015 to prop up the internationally-recognised government, a year after the rebels captured the capital Sanaa.
In body camera video released on Thursday by the Canton Police Department, officers are seen apprehending the man
Voter turnout around the halfway mark was 39%, an Election Commission spokesperson said
