YEMEN: TOP SALEH AIDE DEFECTS TO JOIN HADI SUPPORTERS

Rebel loyalist flees Sanaa to seek sanctuary in government province

The vice-president of the Houthi-Saleh administration that runs Sanaa has fled to a government-controlled area amid news reports he has defected to the government of Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi.

Qasim Al Qasadi, a member of the late former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress party, is the most senior Saleh loyalist to have escaped the Yemeni capital since the alliance between the Houthi rebels and Saleh supporters broke down.

An official in the government’s media ministry, Osama Al Sharmi, said Mr Al Qasadi had arrived at his family’s home in the district of Al Zaher in Al Bayda province on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday night, the Aden-based Al Ghad newspaper said Mr Al Qasadi had declared his support for Mr Hadi’s government. Mr Al Sharmi said he could not confirm this.

The Houthis and Saleh’s supporters had formed a fragile alliance against Mr Hadi’s government, whose forces are backed by a Saudi-led military coalition. But tensions between the two sides came to a head at the end of last month with fierce clashes breaking out in the streets of the capital between rebel fighters and renegade soldiers loyal to Saleh.

After days of fighting, the Iran-backed Houthis gained the upper hand, winning control of most of the capital and killing Saleh as he tried to flee Sanaa. The rebels have since launched a crackdown against members of the GPC, killing several leading figures.

Yemen has been at war since the Houthis seized the capital in September 2014, later advancing south and forcing Mr Hadi’s government to relocate to the southern city of Aden. They have controlled Sanaa ever since, along with Saleh and his supporters.

In August last year, the Houthis and the GPC formed a 10man “supreme political council” to run the parts of Yemen under their control, with five positions going to each side.

The United Nations described the body as unconstitutional and blamed it for the collapse of peace talks with the Yemeni government the same month.

Two months later, however, the rebels and the GPC went a step further, declaring that they were forming a so-called “national salvation” government aimed at rivalling Mr Hadi’s administration. Mr Al Qasadi served as vice-president of this government.

Mr Al Qasadi’s escape from Sanaa came as the government-owned telecommunications corporation said a project to end the Houthis’ monopoly over Yemen’s telecommunications services would achieve its goal in three months.

The corporation was based in Sanaa before the Houthis seized the city. It has since relocated to Aden but the country’s central telecommunications control room remains in the rebel-held capital.

Abdulbast Al Faqih, the corporation’s director, said it was working on the final stages of an enormous project that will see an international telecommunications cable connect to Aden via the sea.

“We need three months to wrap up the project which is going to transfer the telecommunication control room from Sanaa to Aden, then the Houthis will not be able to block any service,” Mr Al Faqih said.

He said the rebels had caused the Yemeni people additional suffering by blocking social media and news sites, and illegally tapping phone calls.

The director said that ending the Houthis’ domination of Yemen’s telecommunications services would be a crucial victory for Mr Hadi’s internationally recognised government as it looks to make economic – as well as territorial – gains over the rebels.