After two weeks of failed negotiations, Houthi rebels announced Friday that they will chart Yemen’s political future, setting up groups to replace the volatile Arab nation’s parliament and form a presidential council.
This all follows last month’s resignations of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and other officials after Houthis moved into the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. The chaos in Yemen has far-reaching implications for the United States and its allies, which had considered Yemen’s previous government a key ally in its fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The United Nations-sponsored talks aimed to find a resolution to the satisfaction of all parties, including the Houthis, who are Shiite Muslims who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni country.
But Friday’s news suggests no such accord.
Instead, the Houthis — politically recognized as Ansarullah — announced that the country’s top supervising authority will become the Houthi Revolutionary Committee. That committee will be charged with setting up a 551-member National Transition Council in place of Yemen’s parliament.
That body, according to the announcement, will then choose members of a five-person Presidential Council, which will lead the country during a two-year transition.
There was no immediate response to the announcement from other Yemeni factions or from officials outside the country.
