Al Houthis lift house arrest on Yemeni prime minister

Sana’a: Al Houthis have freed the prime minister and many other ministers in the former government, ending nearly two months of house arrest following successful negotiations led by the UN envoy Jamal Bin Omar, an aide to prime minister told Gulf News on Monday.

Al Houthis invaded the capital Sana’a and fanned out across much of central Yemen in September in what they hailed as a revolution against misrule and corruption.

A power struggle with President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi began when the militants laid siege to his residence and forced him, Bahah and the cabinet into house arrest in January. Hadi has since escaped to the southern port city of Aden and reclaimed the presidency, setting up a rival administration there backed by Gulf neighbours, who have rejected Al Houthi takeover as a coup. Defence Minister General Mahmoud Al Subaihi has also fled Sana’a to Aden.

On Monday, Bahah announced that Al Houthis allowed him and the other ministers to freely travel inside and outside Yemen. He said the move was a goodwill gesture to ease talks on Yemen’s political transition. “This comes as an expression of sincere good intentions...(the government) confirms it does not desire to return to its duties in light of the exceptional circumstances,” he wrote.

“The house arrest on the prime minister and other ministers in the technocratic government was lifted which include complete freedom to travel inside and outside Yemen.” Bahah said on his Facebook page on Monday. Bahah said that he was leaving the capital to visit his family making no mention of his new destination.

“He may visit his mother in Hadramout province or his wife and children in New York.” the aide said. Bahah was Yemen’s envoy to the United Nation before serving prime minister of a technocratic government in the wake of massive protests by Al Houthis in August. He was Yemen’s ambassador to Canada from 2009 to 2014. United Nations-brokered talks have struggled to heal Yemen’s political rifts and head off the prospect of civil war, which the cabinet’s freedom may now ease.

“This opens the way for political factions to carry out their national responsibility to come up with an agreement which works to restore a transition,” Bahah said.

Al Houthi lead Abdul Malik Al Houthi said on Sunday the group was engaged in indirect talks with neighbour Saudi Arabia, in the first known dialogue between Al Houthis and Riyadh.

-with inputs from Reuters