UN envoy returns to Yemen after Houthi takeover

The UN envoy to Yemen has returned to Sanaa and resumed contacts with major political players to find a way out of a deepening crisis caused by a Shiite rebel takeover, participants in the talks say.

Jamal Benomar had left suddenly for Saudi Arabia last week, where he is believed to have held consultations with visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He returned to Sanaa late Saturday and held meetings with all the main political factions, including leaders of the ruling Revolutionary Committee set up by the rebels, known as Houthis.

The Houthis are under mounting pressure following their decision on Friday to dissolve parliament, which cemented their takeover less than five months after they seized the capital, Sanaa. Late Saturday, the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh — the Houthis’ main ally — added its voice to the growing opposition to the takeover and called for a return to the dialogue moderated by Benomar.

On Sunday, provincial leaders in Maarib east of Sanaa decide that they would resist any attempt by the Houthis to seize the energy-rich province east of Sanaa. The Houthis have been preparing a campaign to capture the province, but the emergence of a strong tribal alliance there as well as a heavy presence by al-Qaida’s branch in Yemen have dissuaded them from pressing ahead.

A statement by the province’s so-called security commission, on which the governor and the local police and military chiefs sit, says it views Sanaa as an “occupied” city and that the province will resist the “coup’s policies.”

— AP