Yemen’s Pro-Saleh Faction, Houthis Make a Deal to End Dispute

Houthis Agree to Release Pro-Saleh Reporters

Several weeks of fighting between the Shi’ite Houthi movement in Yemen and the pro-Saleh General People’s Congress (GPC), fighting which saw Saleh and his top deputies killed, appears to be nearing resolution.

north Yemen PM Abdulaziz bin Habtoor

Abdulaziz bin Habtoor, the prime minister of the Houthi-GPC unity government in Yemen’s north, has reached a deal with the Houthis on continuing to work together, Habtoor is one of the last high-ranking GPC members still alive after that recent row.

Reports have the Houthis freeing a number of reporters and other media staff seen to be pro-GPC, who were rounded up early in the fighting to try to get a handle on the information war in the region during the infighting.

It’s unclear what such a deal actually means, if it reflects a serious rapprochement between the two sides or simply a recognition from the GPC that they cannot survive without Houthi support after losing so many top figures.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.