Yemen's Shiite rebels announce takeover of country

Katharine Lackey | USA TODAY

Yemen rebels announced Friday that they are taking over the country and dissolving its parliament after U.N.-sponsored talks to bring a resolution to the crisis failed.

The rebels, known as the Houthis, took over the capital of Sanaa in September. Two weeks ago, Yemen's U.S.-backed president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, the prime minister and the Cabinet resigned rather than concede to the rebels, who raided the presidential palace and held Hadi and his ministers under house arrest.

According to Reuters, hundreds took to the streets in the Yemeni city of Taiz on Friday to protest the takeover.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf described the situation in Yemen as extremely "fluid" and a break with efforts to reach a consensus agreement on Yemen's future. The U.S. position is that Hadi remains the president of Yemen until his resignation is accepted by the parliament, Harf said.

Meanwhile, the U.S.continues to work with Yemeni counterterrorism security forces that have served under Hadi in fighting al-Qaeda, she said.

In a statement read on TV, a Houthi representative said the group will form a five-member presidential council that will act as the government for a two-year period. A "Revolutionary Committee" is being formed to put in place a new parliament with 551 members.

"This is a new era that will take Yemen to safe shores," the unidentified Houthis representative said. The rebels had issued a Wednesday deadline for Yemen's political parties to negotiate an "acceptable" way forward, and promised to act unilaterally if that time limit wasn't met.

"What the Houthis have done is political suicide and also a coup that would lead the country into the unknown," said Nasser al-Noubah, a leader of the southern separatist movement al-Hirak, according to a Reuters report..

The Houthis' announcement didn't include a timetable or any word on what the rebels will do with Hadi. The crisis puts a question mark over U.S. efforts to combat al-Qaeda's powerful affiliate in Yemen and raises the specter of a sectarian conflict between the Iran-backed Shiite rebels and Sunnis allied with al-Qaeda.

U.N.-sponsored talks this week had aimed to bring an end to the political deadlock. Items brought up in the discussions included the Houthis' insistence that a presidential council be formed and Yemeni parties' demands that the council's formation would include a withdrawal of the rebels from key institutions, as well as the release of the president and his ministers. Others involved in the talks sought for the parliament to re-convene and announce early elections — a move the Houthis opposed.

The Houthis' actions last month were described as a coup by the president's protective force after the group held Hadi, shelled the president's neighborhood and swept into the presidential palace.

Contributing: Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY; The Associated Press