The ousted ex-president of Yemen, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, has ceded his claim to power and agreed to support a so-called “presidential council,” an unelected body appointed by Saudi Arabia.

The move by Hadi came on 7 April after he dismissed former vice president Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.

“I delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council my full powers in accordance with the constitution and the Gulf Initiative and its executive mechanism,” Hadi said during a televised address.

Hadi was ousted by a popular movement led by the Yemeni people and the Ansarallah resistance movement in 2014.

Hadi and his former government officials fled to Saudi Arabia, where they laid claim to ruling Yemen despite having little public support.

The appointment of the presidential council is the latest step taken by the Saudi-led coalition to continue with UN-sponsored peace talks.

After years of defeats at the hands of Ansarallah and the Yemeni armed forces, Saudi Arabia is in need of a way out of this war after having spent billions with little success.

Saudi Arabia welcomed the resignation of Hadi and immediately urged the unelected council to begin negotiations with the Yemeni Supreme Political Council that oversees a popular government with its capital in Sanaa.

Saudi authorities also pledged to provide $3 billion to rebuild Yemen – $2 billion from Saudi Arabia and $1 billion from the UAE.

Last month, Ansarallah officials rejected peace talks promoted by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), on the basis that they would be held in Riyadh. As the aggressor and instigator of the war, an Ansarallah official said, Riyadh cannot be a mediator.

However, Ansarallah have stated their willingness to negotiate in a neutral country.

Despite the UN-brokered truce between Saudi Arabia and Yemen announced on 30 March, Saudi Arabia has violated the truce by shelling Yemeni towns and seizing UN-approved fuel ships.

And while some fuel ships have now been allowed to enter Yemeni ports, Yemen continues to experience one of the worst humanitarian crises as a result of the Saudi-led war and economic blockade.