Mohamed Bin Salman puts the Yemeni president under house arrest.

The Wall Street Journal revealed that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had placed Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi under house arrest.

According to Yemeni and Saudi officials, the newspaper said in an exclusive report that bin Salman is restricting Hadi’s ability to communicate after he forced him to step down last week.

Bin Salman forced Hadi to step down after presenting him with a written decree delegating his powers to the new Presidential Council and said that he had to sign it after the right-wing leaders agreed that it was time for him to leave power.

It added that Saudi officials threatened President Hadi to publish evidence of his corruption if he did not sign a decree to step down from power in favour of an eight-member council.

The newspaper quoted a Saudi official confirming that Hadi is effectively under house arrest at his home in Riyadh without access to phones.

A second Saudi official told the newspaper that few Yemeni politicians were allowed to meet Hadi with the prior approval of the Saudi authorities.

Well-informed Yemeni sources had revealed facts reminiscent of the time of the Ritz hotel, in which princes and senior businessmen were detained in Saudi Arabia, which preceded the resignation of Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi under Saudi pressure.

So far, there is no official support or denial of the leaked information about the last details that preceded Hadi’s announcement of the transfer of power to a presidential council.

The announcement came as a surprise in a context that reinforces the existence of pressures and undeclared negotiations before dawn on Thursday, April 7, at the Royal Court.

The event’s details remained ambiguous, although officials spoke in official statements of complete consensus, which led to the decision to transfer power in Yemen.

On the other hand, opponents and activists are circulating another story, which says that what happened on the dawn of April 7, 2022, was a Saudi plot, in coordination with Yemeni leaders or without any coordination.

This plot quickly led to persuading Hadi to come out and announce a statement of isolation in response to these pressures and what he was told was a compromise solution among the participants in the consultations.

The account published by opposition activists and media professionals, including the former press secretary in the Yemeni presidency, Mukhtar Al-Rahbi, says that the Yemeni political leaders participating in the consultations are under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

According to the source who Al-Rahbi quoted, “President Hadi arrived at the royal court with his children, the bodyguard and some employees,” then “the president was isolated from all aides, with the means of communication being prevented from all those who arrived at the palace, which indicates that something big, important has happened.” articulate and dangerous.”

There was a meeting that brought Hadi together with Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, who, according to unofficial information, informed Hadi that there was consensus on the “solution”, which was presented to him, which is the “presidential declaration”, where he “asked the president to sign the decisions that he was told. All political parties have agreed to it.”

This narration goes that the Yemeni political leaders who were invited to the royal court were distributed in rooms where they stayed before they were informed at dawn that the president had announced the decision and that what they had to sign?

In another form and other details, the allegation was presented by the journalist Al-Khattab Al-Rouhani in tweets on his account, considering what happened “after breakfast, all Yemeni party and government leaders received notification of their readiness to go out to a high-level meeting.

At 10 pm, everyone arrived at the Saudi royal court, and their phones and supplies were taken from them, and they were distributed to rooms, each of them separately, except for some political blocs whose members were placed in one room.

Their waiting or detention continued until three in the morning to attend a promised meeting to resolve differences regarding the proposals presented in the consultations.

But what happened, according to Al-Rouhani, “was not taken into account, as President Hadi, his children and his staff were summoned at 12 pm to the Court, and his staff was distributed in rooms without communication devices or the Internet.” At the same time, he entered alone to meet with Mohammed bin Salman for two hours, after which a minister was summoned. The journalist Muammar Al-Eryani was alone, as he was waiting in a room with three ministers.

The source added, “After a few minutes, Saudi officials went out with Al-Eryani and sent the decision to dismiss MP Ali Mohsen and the letters to the official media.

After three in the morning, Saudi officials went to each room to take the signatures of the political leaders waiting since ten in the evening.

“Some objected and rose up, but the Saudis said that the president had signed and that the statement had been broadcast and the council had been formed, and they had no choice but to sign, and everyone was stunned.”

Al-Rouhani says that “no one knew about the council or what happened in Hadi’s meeting with bin Salman, including Rashad Al-Alimi and the appointed members, who were also surprised by their appointment.”

And that “later it was said that the Saudis deceived Hadi that all those present had agreed and signed the council, and there was nothing left but to save face. It seems that Hadi did not show any resistance after bin Salman told him that.”