clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Houthi government receives widespread condemnation

December 1, 2016 at 5:50 pm

The Turkish Foreign Ministry this morning announced that it would not recognise the new government formed by Yemen’s Houthi movement.

The ministry said the formation of a “national salvation” government was “illegitimate”.

“It is clear that this illegitimate structure will not contribute to the efforts to find a lasting political solution to the problem in Yemen through the United Nations,” the ministry added.

On Monday, the Houthis and allied forces of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced the formation of a “national salvation” government.

Similar condemnations of the Houthi government were made by the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), along with the GCC.

Within the same day of the formation of the government, the UN’s special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said the move was “an obstacle to the peace process” and did not “serve the interests of the people in these difficult times”.

Yemen has been locked in a bitter battle between Houthi rebels allied with forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh and government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, along with local tribes and resistance forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition. Nearly 60,000 people have been killed as a result of the conflict and more than three million have been displaced.