Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi signs the final approval on transforming Yemen into a federal state of six regions in Sanaa on February 10, 2014. (Reuters/Yemen's Defense Ministry handout photo)

(VOVworld)- A presidential panel has agreed to transform Yemen into a six-region federation as part of its political transition. The State news agency Saba announced on Monday that  the final approval on creating a federal state of six regions came at a meeting of the committee, headed by President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and including representatives from Yemen’s main parties. Hadi formed the committee in late January at the end of a “national dialogue” to decide on the number of regions, and to insert it into the text of the new constitution, to be drafted and voted on within a year.
Yemen’s parties had been divided on whether to split the future federation into two or six regions. Sanaa feared that a straight north-south divide could set the stage for the disgruntled south to secede.