Human rights activist Tawakkol Karman, the co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize for Peace, reiterated full support for Yemen’s Saudi-backed exiled President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi in his battle to retake his legitimacy and Yemeni state taken over by the Iran-supported Houthi militia. 

In a statement posted on her Facebook account today morning, Karman stated that Hadi represents Yemeni legitimate authority, and no one is authorized to strip him of this right except the Yemeni people. 

She also warned of any attempt to circumvent or even detract from his legitimacy, as it would legitimize the fascist coup that has led to undermining the state and blowing all chances shaped by what Yemenis have agreed upon in an UN-brokered comprehensive national dialogue taken place for approximately a year.         

United Nations’ Special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, presented on 18 October a peace proposal in an attempt to put an end to the conflict between the Iran-backed Houthi militia with the support of forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh and the legitimate government backed by Saudi-led military coalition. 

However, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi rejected the proposal, saying it “rewards the putschists” who seized power in Sanaa, while Houthi-Saleh alliance said it had “fundamental flaws.”

The roadmap calls for the appointment of a new vice president and the formation of a national unity government that will oversee a transition leading to elections.

Ould Cheikh announced later he will immediately return to the region to try to clinch a peace deal in the coming weeks, even though both sides have rejected his proposals.

He, however, left the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday without meeting Hadi or any other government official to discuss the international body’s peace plan. 

The UN Security Council is seeking to turn up the pressure on both the parties to the conflict to end the war that has caused to kill and injure tens of thousands.