Violent clashes between rival factions in Yemen’s rebel-held capital continued Saturday for the fourth straight day as forces loyal to a former president and Iran-backed Shiite rebels known as Houthis faced off in the streets of Sana’a, signaling disintegration in the rebel alliance at war with a Saudi-led coalition for nearly three years.
Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels, who threw the country into civil war this year after a coup attempt against exiled president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, have written a letter to the United Nations accepting a seven-point peace plan led by Oman.
Prime Minister Khaled Bahah—of the internationally recognized Yemeni government that fled to Saudi Arabia after the Iran-backed Houthis seized swathes of Yemen early this year—has returned to his homeland after months of exile.
Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is in self-exile in Saudi Arabia, backed out of United Nations-brokered talks this week with Iran-linked Houthi rebels, according to the leader’s office.
Yemen’s internationally-recognized president has decreed that armed groups fighting against Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen merge with his national army units in an apparent effort to bring ground forces on his side together.
The overthrow of Yemen’s U.S.-backed government by Iran-backed rebels from the Houthi tribe might not be complete just yet.
Yemen’s president resigned on Thursday under pressure from Shiite rebels who seized the capital in September and have confined the embattled leader to his home for the past two days.