[News] The Yemeni president hands over power to a presidential council as Saudi Arabia seeks to end the war

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ADEN (Reuters) - Yemen's president fired his controversial vice president on Thursday and delegated the president's powers to a leadership council in a Saudi-backed move, removing some obstacles to U.N.-led efforts to revive negotiations to end the seven-year war.

Riyadh announced $3 billion in financial aid to the Saudi-backed government after President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's announcement. It also called for talks with the Iran-backed Houthis, who are fighting a Saudi-led coalition.

In a major breakthrough, Yemen's warring parties agreed to a two-month truce that began on Saturday, the first since 2016. The truce also eased the coalition's siege of areas controlled by the Houthis, who ousted Hadi's government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.

Hadi, who resides in Riyadh, told state television, "By this announcement, I delegate the Presidential Leadership Council an irreversible delegation of all my powers in accordance with the constitution, the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism."

The dismissed Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a Sunni military leader with Islamist inclinations, angered the Shiite Houthis over previous military campaigns in their northern stronghold, as well as the southerners for his leadership role in the 1994 north-south civil war.

Hadi took over the crumbling country in 2012 in a political transition plan backed by Gulf states after the 2011 Arab Spring protests that toppled President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was later killed.

Riyadh urged "the Presidential Command Council to start negotiating with the Houthis under the supervision of the United Nations to reach a final and comprehensive political solution."

Gregory Johnson, a former member of the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen, said on Twitter: "This is an attempt...perhaps a last-ditch effort to recreate what looks like unity within the anti-Houthi coalition. The problem is that it is not clear how these diverse individuals, many of whom are They have completely opposing opinions, working together."

And Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appeared in a video recording broadcast by official media, as he met with the new eight-member council headed by Rashad Al-Alimi.

Al-Alimi is close to the Islamist Islah party, the backbone of Hadi's government, which the coalition partner, the United Arab Emirates, does not trust.

Among the vice presidents is Aidarous al-Zubaidi, the leader of the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist group. Al-Zubaidi is supported by the UAE.

*Economic help

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, destroyed the economy and pushed Yemen to the brink of famine. The depreciation of the rial in the government-controlled south has left many unable to buy basic goods.

A statement published by Saudi state media said that both the Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, its partner in the coalition, will inject $1 billion into the Central Bank of Yemen, and Riyadh will provide an additional $1 billion to support petroleum derivatives and development efforts.

Riyadh, which last deposited money with the central bank in Aden in 2018, is seeking an exit from the costly and unpo[CENSORED]r conflict widely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Riyadh said it would give $300 million in United Nations aid, which in March raised less than a third of the $4.27 billion requested.

The United Nations is pressing for comprehensive political negotiations to end the conflict in which several Yemeni factions are vying for power.

(Prepared by Mustafa Saleh and Suha Jado for the Arabic Bulletin - Editing by Suha Jado)