SANA’A: Tens of thousands of supporters of Yemen’s Shia rebels rallied yesterday in Sana’a pressing the government to quit as a presidential team held crisis talks in their stronghold to end the impasse.
After the rally, a group of Zaidi rebels began erecting an encampment on a road in northern Sana’a that leads to the airport and where the interior, communication and electricity ministries are located, a reporter said.
The protest was staged the final day of an ultimatum set by rebel commanded Abdulmalik Al Houthi for the government, which they accuse of corruption, to resign.
But on the streets protesters chanted: “The people want to overthrow the government” and demanded that the cabinet revoke a decision to double fuel prices. They also repeated the Iranian revolutionary slogan: “Death to America. Death to Israel. Allahu Akbar.”
Authorities in Sana’a have long accused Shia-dominated Iran of backing the Zaidi rebellion. Yesterday’s protest marks the start of the “second phase of the peaceful revolutionary escalation” through “legitimate means”, Houthi said.
AFP
