Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr Wednesday accused in a meeting with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia the Houthi rebel group of “not complying with any political solutions without Iranian consent”. According to the Anadolu Agency, Ahmed Bin Daghr made the remarks during a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, Matthew Toler.
“The Houthi militia will not abide by any political solution to stop the war… unless Iran gives a green light. If the international community is serious about stopping the suffering of our people, it must oppose those who are feeding the war,” Daghr added, referring to Iran, which the Yemeni government accuses of supporting the Houthis.
Iran is accused of arming the Houthi group with ballistic missiles which were used to target Saudi Arabia last month. In response, Riyadh imposed an air, land and sea blockade in Yemen which is ongoing, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the country.
The Houthis have remained in control of the capital Sana’a since late 2014 despite the intervention of a Saudi-led coalition in March 2015 to recapture swaths of northern Yemen. A political solution has not been found for the conflict with Kuwait and Oman offering to mediate between the warring parties.
Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed bin Daghr Wednesday accused the Houthi rebel group of “not complying with any political solutions without Iranian consent”.
“If the international community is serious about stopping the suffering of our people, it must oppose those who are feeding the war,” he said in reference to Iran.
Meanwhile, a leading member of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress party has agreed to work with the Houthi rebels after an alliance between the two sides collapsed earlier this month, a GPC-aligned journalist has told The National.
Abdulaziz bin Habtoor is the prime minister of the Houthi-Saleh administration that runs Sanaa and other parts of Yemen under rebel control.
The Iran-supported Houthis and Saleh’s supporters had formed a fragile alliance against the government of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi whose forces are backed by a Saudi-led military coalition. But tensions between the two sides came to a head at the end of last month with fierce clashes breaking out in the streets of the capital between rebel fighters and elite renegade soldiers loyal to Saleh.
After days of fighting, the Iran-backed Houthis gained the upper hand, gaining control of most of the capital and killing Saleh as he tried to flee Sanaa. The rebels have since launched a crackdown against members of the GPC, killing several leading figures.
The GPC-aligned journalist, who fled Sanaa on the day of Saleh’s murder and is now based in Marib province, said the Houthis were trying to persuade GPC members to sign onto a deal that would see the rebels change the Houthi-Saleh administration. But the source said two-thirds of the GPC’s leaders and members had already fled rebel areas.