Yemen VP urges national unity against Houthis

Yemen’s vice president on Saturday called for national unity to challenge the Houthis’ control over the country’s institutions and their crimes against the Yemeni people.
Lt. Gen. Ali Mohsen Saleh praised the Yemeni people’s growing awareness of the national, regional and international dangers posed by the Iran-backed Houthis.
Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he was ready for a “new page” in relations with the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.
The call came as his supporters battled Houthi fighters for a fourth day in the capital Sanaa as the two sides traded blame for a rift between allies that could affect the course of the civil war.
“I call upon the brothers in neighboring states and the alliance to stop their aggression, lift the siege, open the airports and allow food aid and the saving of the wounded and we will turn a new page by virtue of our neighborliness,” Saleh said in a televised speech.
“We will deal with them in a positive way and what happened to Yemen is enough,” he added.
Saleh stepped down after 33 years in office in 2012, following months of Arab Spring protests against his rule, but remained leader of the GPC, the country’s largest political party.
The Arab coalition supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government said it is closely monitoring fighting between Houthi militias and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The differences between the rebel factions are due to the Iran-backed Houthis’ attempts to impose, by force of arms, their will on the Yemeni people, the coalition said.
It called on the Yemeni people, including supporters of Saleh’s party — the General People’s Congress — to unite against the Houthis for the benefit of the entire country.
The coalition reiterated its full support for attempts by the Yemeni people to preserve their land, identity, integrity and social unity within the framework of Arab, regional and international security.
SALEH CONTROLS SOUTHERN SANAA
Residents of Sanaa described heavy fighting on the streets of Hadda, a southern residential district of the Yemeni capital where many of Saleh’s relatives, including his nephew Tareq, live, early on Saturday, with sounds of explosions and gunfire heard all over the area.
The fighting subsided by the afternoon as Saleh supporters secured control.
There was no immediate word on casualties.
Saleh’s GPC party accused the Houthis of failing to honor the truce and said in a statement on its website that the Houthis bear responsibility for dragging the country into a civil war.
It also called on supporters, including tribal fighters, to “defend themselves, their country, their revolution and their republic...”
The GPC appealed to the army and security forces to remain neutral in the conflict.
“I appeal to the leader Saleh to show more wisdom and maturity... and not to heed incitement calls,” Abdel-Malek Al-Houthi said in a speech on the group’s Al-Masirah TV, adding that his group was ready to sit down for arbitration and abide by any ruling.
The fighting began on Wednesday when Saleh’s GPC party accused the Houthis of breaking into the city’s main mosque complex and firing RPGs and grenades.
Both sides reported that at least 16 people have been killed in the fighting since Wednesday.
Yemen’s civil war has killed more than 10,000 people since 2015, displaced more than two million people, caused a cholera outbreak infecting nearly one million people and put the country on the brink of famine.