Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has ordered the halt of military operations against STC and announced his full commitment to a ceasefire in the province of Abyan, calling for the immediate implementation of a Saudi-brokered power-sharing deal.

In an emergency meeting with his advisers, heads of parliament and political-party leaders in Riyadh, Hadi said government forces must commit to the ceasefire in response to efforts by Saudi Arabia to help “end the armed rebellion against the state and its institutions and resumption of the implementation of Riyadh agreement.” He called on the Southern Transitional Council, once an ally in the fight against the Shiite Houthi rebels, to use the efforts by the Saudis to implement the deal, the government-controlled Saba news agency reported.

The Saudi-led coalition has called for a ceasefire in Abyan after the forces of the Southern Transitional Council, seized control over the strategically-placed island of Socotra. The UAE withdrew from the coalition in 2019.

The power-sharing deal was first signed in November after clashes earlier in the year which the STC seized the port city of Aden. Yemen is strategically significant because it lies on a waterway linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden that is a conduit for much of the world’s oil.