President Aidarous Qassem Al-Zubaidi, President of the Southern Transitional Council, Vice-Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, reiterated that peace in Yemen can only be achieved after addressing the southerners' demands for independence.

 President Al-Zubaidi added, during his interview with a number of journalists as part of his visit to the British capital, London, as reported by the British "Middle East Eye" website, "We believe that the independence of the south is the solution."

 President Al-Zubaidi noted that the Southern Transitional Council currently gives priority to working with the parties in the Presidential Leadership Council, within the framework of the alliance produced by the Riyadh consultations, to achieve stability of the local currency, provide fuel, and increase food security, stressing that the issue of withdrawing from the Presidential Leadership Council is out of the question currently, especially since the Southern Transitional Council is the active force on the ground, and the matter is only about how to solve problems, and there is not enough time for that.

 Regarding the possibility of concluding a peace agreement and sharing power with the Houthi militia, President Al-Zubaidi explained, "If it is difficult to deal with the colleagues of the Southern Transitional Council within the government, then the possibility of sharing power with the Houthi group allied with Iran will be more difficult."

 President Al-Zubaidi stated that finding common ground with the Houthi militia will be difficult, because each party has a completely different regime from the other, continuing his speech by saying: "The Houthi ideology stems from a religious system which believes that power comes from God, while we are in the Transitional Council, and the south,  and now in the Council's Presidium, we believe that power comes from the people, that is, from the bottom up and not the other way around, and so this big difference makes it very difficult to share something together, to form a system together.”

 Regarding the efforts made by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to end the war, the President indicated that the brothers in the Kingdom want to close this file and focus more on their Vision 2030, but he warned at the same time that the Houthis are playing on the time factor to regroup for another round of conflict, so that they live and survive during war, not during peace.

 In the same context, President Al-Zubaidi described the Saudi-Iranian talks as "a positive thing for the region," but indicated that this had not yet positively affected the situation in Yemen.

 President Al-Zubaidi continued his speech in this regard, saying: "If this rapprochement will contribute to fixing some problems and calming the situation, we will not say no to such rapprochement, but rather we will support it, but in both cases, many of Yemen's problems need a solution from  the inside, not the outside."

 President Al-Zubaidi concluded his speech by responding to inquiries and allegations about the existence of a rift in the relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates regarding the Yemen war file, stressing that "this rift was only heard through the media, but in reality nothing like this".