Riyadh: Yemen’s Gulf neighbours on Saturday condemned what they termed a “coup” in Sana’a after the Al Huthi militia dissolved parliament and installed a presidential council to run the country.
“The Al Huthi coup marks a grave and unacceptable escalation... and endangers the security, stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen,” the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement from its Riyadh headquarters.
The GCC had urged the Al Huthis to pull out of Sana’a, which the militia overran in September.
On Saturday, the GCC said its own security was linked to that of Yemen and vowed to take “all the necessary measures to defend their interests”, without elaborating.
The GCC called on the UN Security Council to intervene and put an end to the “coup which has placed Yemen and its people in a dark tunnel”.
The militia announced Saturday the formation of a “security commission”, including former ministers, saying that the defence and interior ministers in the government of outgoing President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi were among the 18 members of the security commission.
A bomb exploded outside the republican palace in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday and wounded three Al Houthi militiamen guarding it, eyewitnesses said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
Separately, thousands of demonstrators gathered in three cities in central Yemen to protest Al Houthis seizing power.
Al Houthi gunmen dispersed dozens of activists near the capital’s main university by firing into the air.
Protesters chanted slogans calling the Houthi moves a “coup” and demanded the group withdraw its forces from major cities.
Al Houthis dissolved parliament on Friday and set up a five-member presidential council to form a transitional government to govern for two years.
The steps announced in a “constitutional declaration” aim to fill a power vacuum after President Hadi and Prime Minister Khalid Bahah resigned last month.
