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Yemen Movement Announces Takeover Of Parliament

Yemen’s Shia Houthi rebel movement has announced on Friday that it is taking over the government, dissolving the parliament and creating new interim assembly, a … Continue reading Yemen Movement Announces Takeover Of Parliament


movementYemen’s Shia Houthi rebel movement has announced on Friday that it is taking over the government, dissolving the parliament and creating new interim assembly, a move that could ease a power struggle that forced the president to step down last month.

The rebel movement in a televised statement said that a presidential council would act as the government for an interim period.

The movement made it known in a television statement that the new assembly will elect a five-member interim presidential council to manage the country’s affairs in a transitional period of up to two years.

The Houthis has set a Wednesday deadline for political parties to reach an agreement on ending the country’s political turmoil, threatening to act unilaterally otherwise.

The Shi’ite Muslim movement, which is backed by Iran, had set a Wednesday deadline for political factions to agree a way out of the crisis, otherwise, the group said, it would impose its own solution.

The rebel movement took control of the capital Sanaa in September, forcing the resignation of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi last month.

Powerful Sunni and southern political parties have not recognised the takeover by the Houthis, who are minority Shia from the north.

Iran has been accused of alleged financial and military support to the Houthis, something both have denied.

Yemen has been in political limbo since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the government of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned after the Houthis seized the presidential palace and confined the head of state to his residence in a struggle to tighten control.

The Houthis, who became power brokers when they overran Sanaa in September, had been holding talks with main political factions trying to agree on a way out of the stand-off.