Sana’a: Yemen’s Al Houthi rebels yesterday rejected the UN Security Council’s demand to remove protest camps from the capital Sana’a as the world body expressed “grave concern” about the deteriorating security situation.

Tens of thousands of supporters of the rebels rallied on Friday in Sana’a to press for the government to step down, as a large number of its backers held a counter-demonstration.

“We feel disappointed with the UN statement that appeared to be supporting some parties in the country. The statement ignored the demands of the people who are protesting,” Ali Al Bikhiti, a spokesperson for the group, told Gulf News.

The Security Council’s statement on Friday called the Al Houthis to stop pressurising the government and pull out of territories that they controlled in recent months.

“The Security Council expresses grave concern about the deterioration of the security situation in Yemen in light of the action taken by the Al Houthis, led by Abdul Malek Al Houthi, and those who support them, to undermine the political transition and the security of Yemen,” the council said in a statement.

“The Security Council calls on the Al Houthis to withdraw their forces from Amran and return Amran to government of Yemen control; cease all armed hostilities against the government of Yemen in Al Jawf, and remove the camps and dismantle the checkpoints they have erected in and around Sana’a,” it said.

Al Bikhiti said that their supporters would not pull out of Amran and other provinces and will not hand over weapons to the state until their opponent, the Islah party, receives the same criticism and call.

“The UN statement should have called upon all parties who took part in Amran fighting. The Muslin Brotherhood is one of these parties and still possesses weapons,” he said, referring to the alternative name for Islah party in Yemen which is widely seen as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

The rebels say that they are not afraid of any financial sanctions.

Al Bikhiti said: ”We are not afraid of any sanctions as we do not have properties and bank accounts abroad.”

Al Houthi’s followers want the resignation of the government, the scrapping of fuel price rises and a broader political partnership.

The rebels have had armed fighters camped around Sana’a for the past week and held protests almost throughout August.

An official close to the presidency told AFP that talks between the government and the Al Houthis could resume on Saturday.

“A meeting is expected to take place and the presidential committee tasked with leading the dialogue will present a new approach to end the crisis,” the official said.

He said the plan calls for the creation of a new government of technocrats.

Yemen president Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his government have repeatedly urged Iran to stop supporting their cause and the southern separatists and the Al Houthis in the north.

On August 27, Hadi told a gathering of his supporters that the Iranians “greatly” support the Al Houthis and are attempting to “swap Sana’a with Damascus”, in reference to the Iranian involvement in Syria. Iran denies interfering in Yemen affairs.

The Al Houthi rebels have been fighting the government for a decade in the province of Saada. The rebels say that they have taken arms to confront the US interference in Yemen and get more freedom for practising their Shiite sect.

Analysts dispute their demands, saying that the Al Houthis are copying the scenarios of Hezbollah in Lebanon and want to revive the Hashemite state that died in the 1960s.

“They want to achieve big gains like sharing the cabinet, keeping their weapons and maintaining their full leverage on the provinces that they controlled by force,” said Abdul Salam Mohammad, director of Abaad Centre.