SANA’A: Yemen’s Houthi movement yesterday rejected a new power-sharing government that President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced on Friday, thwarting his efforts to end the country’s political crisis.
The group said Hadi’s choice of cabinet ministers “dashed hopes and did not abide by what was agreed upon”. Adding to Hadi’s troubles, his own political party the General People’s Congress ousted him as its leader before itself rejecting his cabinet, thereby demonstrating its main loyalty to his predecessor and rival Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Hadi was forced to name a new government as part of a United Nations-brokered deal following the Houthis’ entry into Sanaa on September 21 after defeating rival political factions in battle.
Both the Houthis and the GPC were angered by a United Nations Security Council decision on Friday to subject Saleh and two of the Shia movement’s leaders to asset freezes and travel bans.
The UN sanctioned the three men for attempting to destabilise Yemen’s fragile political transition from Saleh’s 33-year rule after he was forced to step down in 2012 following mass street protests.
Underscoring Western and Gulf Arab concerns over stability in Yemen, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said it had attempted to kill the US ambassador, Matthew Tueller, planting two bombs on Thursday outside his residence.
Reuters
