SANAA — “Thawra” (revolution) has been on the tongues of Yemenis for the past two years, but revolutionary changes tend to move at a glacial pace. For example, it took President Ali Abdullah Saleh nearly a year to agree to the 2011 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) deal on the transfer of presidential power. This past week brought an the exception to the rule when President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi hastened the pace of change with presidential decrees altering the political and military balance of power in Yemen. “Awe” was the most apt word to describe the atmosphere when it occurred. Indeed, most Yemenis could be heard uttering, “Finally,” in response to Hadi’s decision to reshuffle the military.
The presidential decrees not only fulfilled one of the key demands of the 2011 revolution, but also brought to a close the long-standing dispute, and outright armed conflict, between Ahmed Ali Saleh, eldest son of the deposed president Saleh and who headed the powerful Republican Guard, and Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who had earlier defected to protect protesters in 2011.