Riyadh to host Yemen talks at Hadi request

UN-brokered reconciliations talks, which had been taking place in Sanaa, have broken down since president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi fled to Aden.

RIYADH // The GCC have agreed to host talks in Riyadh aimed at pulling Yemen out of crisis, the Saudi royal cabinet said.

Yemen’s beleaguered president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi made the request to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman after failing to reach agreement with the militia and their backers on a venue inside Yemen.

Mr Hadi has been based in Yemen’s second city Aden since escaping the Shiite militia-controlled capital last month.

UN-brokered reconciliations talks, which had been taking place in Sanaa, have broken down since Mr Hadi’s flight to Aden.

The Western-backed president says they can no longer be held in the capital and the militia and their supporters have threatened to boycott talks anywhere else.

“The secretariat general of the Gulf Cooperation Council is going to make the necessary arrangements” for the talks, the royal cabinet said.

It did not give a date for the talks.

Mr Hadi proposed that the Riyadh meeting convene “all the Yemeni political parties anxious to preserve the security and stability of Yemen”, said the statement carried by the official SPA news agency on Sunday.

He underlined that the conference should reject “the coup d’etat” of the Houthi militia, who seized power in Sanaa on February 6 after overrunning the capital last September.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait moved their embassies to Aden after an exodus of foreign diplomats from Sanaa in February over security concerns.

The GCC states are deeply concerned that the Shiite Houthi rebels will take Yemen into the orbit of Iran.

Yemen, a front line in the US war against Al Qaeda, has been gripped by unrest since longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh stepped down in early 2012 after a bloody year-long uprising.

Mr Saleh’s General People’s Congress party is widely accused of backing the Houthis and has vowed to boycott any talks not held in Sanaa.

The Houthi militia control much of northern Yemen but have faced fierce resistance from armed tribes in mainly Sunni and mixed provinces south of the capital, sometimes in alliance with Al Qaeda.

Tribal sources said 22 militiamen were killed in fighting in Al Baida province on Sunday night.

Troops and paramilitaries loyal to Mr Hadi largely control Aden and adjacent southern provinces but Al Qaeda has a strong presence further east.

An attack by suspected Al Qaeda militants on an army position on the border between Abyan and Shabwa provinces killed two soldiers on Monday, a military official said.

* Agence France-Presse