By: Agencies
Source: MWC News
Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi has resigned along with his cabinet a day after he and Houthi rebels fighting him announced that they had reached an agreement to resolve the crisis gripping the country.
Government spokesman Rageh Badi said the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Khaled Bahah handed its resignation to Hadi on Thursday without providing further details, the AP news agency reported. Hadi then resigned shortly afterwards.
Bahah’s government was formed in November as part of a UN-brokered peace deal after the Houthis overran the capital in September.
The prime minister posted his resignation on his official Facebook page, saying he had held office in “very complicated circumstances”.
He said he resigned in order to “avoid being dragged into an abyss of unconstructive policies based on no law.”
“We don’t want to be a party to what is happening or will happen,” he added.
The news came as the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, had met on Thursday with Hadi along with the rebels fighting him to try to implement an agreement the two sides reached to resolve a violent crisis that has gripped the capital.
The rebels had agreed on Wednesday to withdraw from areas overlooking the presidential palace and the private compound of Hadi, after receiving assurances of constitutional change and power-sharing.
Although the Houthis had welcomed the proposed concessions by the government on power-sharing, their fighters still held positions outside the residence of Hadi.
Marib clashes
Earlier, clashes erupted in central Yemen, with local tribesmen saying they were pushing back Shia Muslim Houthis clans trying to capture an army base in Marib province, a tribal leader said.
“The Houthis came with many fighters with the aim of storming the base of the 7th Brigade and tribesmen are fighting them back,” Sheikh Hamad bin Waheet, the tribal leader, told the Reuters news agency.
Marib province, which is home to a significant portion of Yemen’s oil fields and other energy nfrastructure, has been a flashpoint in recent months as the Houthis expanded their influence across the country, taking Sanaa and becoming de facto national powerbrokers.
Half of Yemen’s oil and more than half of its electricity are produced in Marib, which is also where the main gas fields are located. Its chief export pipeline carries around 70,000-110,000 barrels per day of Marib light crude to the Red Sea.
Tribal leader Waheet said local tribes had agreed with Marib’s governor and the head of the army to protect the province from Houthis or other aggressors.
“Armed tribesmen from Bayda province and al-Jawf are also coming and we’ll defend Marib,” he said.
The Houthis want to replace the governor, who they say is too close to neighbouring Sunni Saudi Arabia and to General Ali Mohsen, a Sunni Islamist-leaning general.
They also want army units to be sent in to protect vital installations there, Houthi official Ali al-Imad told Reuters.
The Houthis seized large parts of Sanaa in September and have since pressed demands for constitutional reforms and an end to corruption in government.
In a separate incident that has triggered further controversy, leaked phone conversations suggest Yemen’s ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was talking with Houthi rebels a month after they took control of the capital.
In the audio recording, received on Wednesday, Saleh is heard apparently coordinating military and political moves with Abdul Wahid Abu Ras, a Houthi leader.
