PLC cease Central Bank’s measures against Houthis, senior government source

Yesterday (July 12), a senior government source told 'South24 Center' that Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) has approved ceasing the implementation of all Central Bank decisions against the Houthis.

This came after an emergency meeting held by the PLC, as reported by the government agency Saba, to discuss a letter sent by the UN Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, asking the PLC to postpone the Central Bank’s recent measures against the six Sanaa-headquartered banks violating its orders until the end of August. Grundberg said in the letter that the Central Bank’s decisions may lead to an escalation that may extend to the military field, and called for a dialogue on the economic file between the Yemeni parties under UN auspices.

The PLC did not officially comment on this news, but government officials and local media confirmed this information.

According to Saba agency, the PLC discussed the Houthis’ threats to resume military escalation and “return the scene to the square of comprehensive war”. The PLC affirmed its adherence to a clear agenda for participating in any “dialogue on the economic file, including resuming oil exports and unifying the national currency...”

Informed sources told 'South24 Center' that Saudi Arabia pressured the PLC to retract its economic decisions after Houthis threatened to resume the war and target economic facilities deep inside Saudi Arabia. A banking source, who requested anonymity, reported last Wednesday that Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Mubarak, under Saudi pressure, asked the Governor of the Central Bank, Ahmed Al-Maqbi, not to announce a decision to suspend the licenses of the six violating banks whose headquarters are still in Sanaa. 

These are Al-Tadhamon Bank, the Yemen Kuwait Bank, the Shamil Bank of Yemen and Bahrain, Al-Amal Microfinance Bank, Al-Kuraimi Islamic Microfinance Bank, and the International Bank of Yemen.

Dozens of Yemeni politicians and activists have warned in publications followed by 'South24 Center' of the negative consequences of freezing or suspending the decisions of the Central Bank of Yemen against the Iranian-backed group, directing harsh criticism at the UN role in the Yemeni crisis.

Reversing the economic measures is likely to spark a possible state of division within the Yemeni government, amid the popular reactions denouncing these developments, according to observers who spoke to ’South24 Center’.

It is likely that the PLC's decisions to suspend the economic measures came under high pressure from Saudi Arabia in light of the Houthis' threat to launch a new war against the Kingdom. Yesterday, the Houthis mobilized tens of thousands of their supporters in Sanaa to threaten the war option.

In April, the Aden-based Central Bank gave the Sanaa-headquartered banks a two-month deadline to transform the center of their operations from Sanaa to Aden. However, the six banks failed to comply with the directions, following which the Central Bank of Yemen in Aden withdrew their licenses.