Dubai: Yemen’s illegal governing council convened on Saturday for the first time since a war began almost two years ago.
The Iran-backed Al Houthis and their allies in the General People’s Congress (GPC) party, headed by ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control the capital Sana’a and have withstood air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition.
President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his internationally recognised government view them as putschists after they took the capital by force in September 2014 and have warned them against seeking to legitimise their rule through parliament.
In a statement carried on the state news agency Saba, Hadi called the council session illegal and warned that MPs attending it could be prosecuted as criminals.
After UN-backed peace talks to end the war collapsed last week, the Al Houthis and the GPC set up a governing council to rule the country despite UN and government opposition.
The assembly convened within earshot of bombings by Saudi-led warplanes on military bases several miles away.
