President Dr. Rashad Muhammad Al-Alimi, President of the Presidential Leadership Council, received the Ambassador of the French Republic Catherine Qurm-Kammun on Sunday in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
According to the official website of President Al-Alimi, the ambassador delivered an invitation from President Emmanuel Macron to attend the opening events of the Olympic Games hosted by Paris at the end of next month.
The meeting addressed many important issues, including bilateral relations between the two friendly countries, local developments, regional developments, including the ongoing repercussions of the Houthi group’s attacks on oil facilities and maritime shipping vessels, as well as developments in the region, and efforts to achieve peace and stability in Yemen.
The preparations for the Paris Club meeting at the end of this month were discussed, as well as the role of international partners in addressing Yemen’s debts, supporting its efforts to improve economic and service performance, and mitigating the impact of the humanitarian crisis created by the Houthis in Yemen.
The Council President also listened to the French ambassador’s recent and upcoming communication program with local forces and regional and international actors, as well as Paris’s assessments of developments at the national and regional levels, and ways to share efforts to contain their repercussions.
During the meeting, President Al-Alimi renewed his appreciation for the distinguished bilateral relations between the two friendly countries, and the French Republic’s understanding of the rationale behind the monetary and banking reforms led by the Central Bank of Yemen with the support of the Leadership Council and the government.
President Al-Alimi clarified that the Central Bank’s decisions regarding banks in areas under Houthi control are technical financial measures that protect the banking sector from collapse and have no political motives.
His Excellency reassured the banking sector and the international community about the importance of the recent decisions of the Central Bank, which only require banks in Houthi-controlled areas to transfer the main operations management of banks to the temporary capital Aden, including information systems, data centers, international operations management, and compliance management with international standards.
He stressed that these decisions do not prevent banks from continuing to provide their banking services to citizens throughout Yemen as their branches, under the applicable regulations and laws.
President Al-Alimi pointed out that the Houthis have taken many unilateral measures over the past years aimed at dividing the banking system, damaging the national economy, exacerbating the humanitarian catastrophe, undermining confidence in the national currency, leading to the printing of counterfeit currency, and placing Yemeni banks under the threat of international sanctions.
