Yemeni Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak attends a joint press conference in Moscow, Russia, 27 February 2024. Maxim Shipenkov/ Pool via REUTERS
ADEN (Reuters) -Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, prime minister of Yemen's internationally recognised government, said in a statement on Saturday he had resigned after facing "lots of difficulties" including being unable to reshuffle the government.
His exit follows conflict with Rashad Al-Alimi, head of Yemen's presidential council, over his powers after the latter refused Mubarak's request to dismiss 12 of the government's ministers, six government sources told Reuters.
They said Finance Minister Salem Saleh Bin Braik was set to be appointed the new prime minister.
Mubarak was appointed premier in February 2024 after serving as foreign minister. He came to prominence in 2015 when he was kidnapped by Iran-aligned Houthi militia while serving as Yemen's presidential chief of staff during the Houthis' conflict with then-President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Mubarak's resignation, which he announced in a statement, came with the U.S. intensifying airstrikes to take out Houthi military assets and deter them from targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
The deadly strikes on the group since March have been the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.
Yemen has been embroiled in civil war for over a decade. The Houthis seized the capital Sanaa in 2014 and ousted the recognised government, forcing it to relocate to the southern port of Aden. The Houthis now hold most of the country including its main population centres in the north and west.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; writing by Menna Alaa El-Din; editing by Barbara Lewis and Mark Heinrich)
