The Houthi rebel group that has seized control of Yemen’s capital on Tuesday said that separatist forces in the south were responsible for the impasse preventing an end to the political crisis convulsing the nation.
“Some forces in the south are taking provocative steps,” group leader Abdel Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech. “This country is for all of us and can fit all of us.”
Al-Houthi proposed new talks in the speech, and his group released a presidential aide seized 10 days ago as a goodwill gesture.
Photo: Reuters
However, there was no indication that his speech signaled an easing to the crisis in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation and an incubator for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
If anything, al-Houthi’s 30-minute criticism of the southern separatists’ ambitions could drive them further away.
The Houthi movement, a Shiite group with Iranian backing, opposes al-Qaeda, but also objects to the strong US influence in Sana’a. It took over main parts of the capital last week, including the presidential palace.
US-backed former Yememi president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi resigned along with his Cabinet leaving the nation leaderless and divided.
The US has relied on Hadi as a counterterrorism partner in its drone strike campaign against al-Qaeda, and there were reports last week that his resignation had led to a suspension of that effort, which US officials denied.
However, the crisis did prompt the US Department of State to curtail work at its embassy in Sana’a, which closed except for consular emergencies.
Alarmed by the Houthi advance and the ensuing power struggle, the southern separatist movement, Heraq, asserted its demand for independence by seizing control of territories and raising its own flag over some government buildings.
On Monday, in a sign that the US intended to pursue its drone strikes in Yemen regardless of the political crisis, three suspected al-Qaeda fighters were killed in a CIA drone attack, US officials said.
“We lost all hope for building a true civil state in Sana’a,” said Ali al-Quthairi, a spokesman for a council composed of some of the main groups in the south fighting for independence.
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