Al-Alimi became Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, a body given the powers of the
President of Yemen, on 7 April 2022, through a decree by President Hadi, who irreversibly transferred his powers to the council. Multiple sources in the
Yemeni and
Saudi governments stated that
Saudi Arabia, where Hadi was living, forced him to cede power to Alimi. On 27 August 2024, al-Alimi made his first official visit to
Taiz, the third largest city in Yemen, pledging to liberate the Houthi-controlled areas of the city and end the nine-year long
Houthi siege affecting it. He also promised to restore or improve basic services in the city such as power supplies and announced several planned projects with funding from the
Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen such as a 30 megawatt power plant, a medical school and educational complex at
Taiz University and improved roads along the Heijat Al-Abed route. Al-Alimi and prime minister
Salem Saleh bin Braik were reported to have left Aden for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 5 December 2025 following an
offensive by the
Southern Transitional Council which saw it rapidly take control of most of the former South Yemen. He chaired a meeting of Yemen's National Defence Council in Riyadh on 26 December 2025.
Relationship with the Houthis During a briefing with journalists in Riyadh in January 2024, al-Alimi stated that the
airstrike campaign launched earlier in the month by the
United States and the
United Kingdom against the Houthis was "defensive", saying that the solution to the Red Sea crisis "is to eliminate the Houthis’ military capabilities". Al-Alimi hailed US President
Donald Trump's re-designation of the Houthis as a
foreign terrorist organization on 23 January 2025, calling it "key to accountability and a step toward peace and stability in Yemen and the region." == References ==