Yemen PM says Shiite militia to end his house arrest

SANAA — Yemeni Prime Minister Khalid Bahah said that he was poised to leave the capital Sanaa on Monday after Shiite militia agreed to free him from two months of house arrest.

Bahah said on his Facebook page that other captive members of his government, which offered its resignation in January, would also be released in a "goodwill gesture" by the Houthi militia that would "push forward" UN-brokered reconciliation efforts.

Western-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has said he never accepted the Bahah government's resignation and has called on ministers to join him in Yemen's second city Aden where he established his authority after escaping from Sanaa last month.

Defence Minister General Mahmoud Subaihi reached Aden this month, escaping following a firefight with Houthi militiamen that killed at least one of his guards.

But Bahah said that his government "does not intend to act as caretaker due to the exceptional circumstances" in the country.

He also announced no immediate plans to travel to Aden, saying he would head to his native province of Hadramawt in the southeast to visit his family.

Bahah said he had been held under house arrest by the Houthis since January 19 — three days before he tendered his resignation.

He was one of a string of government members detained by the militia whose release the United Nations has repeatedly demanded.

His release comes just one day after UN envoy Jamal Benomar made a new appeal to the Houthis to "immediately" free Bahah and his ministers, following meetings with them at their residences in Sanaa.

The Houthis, who had been in effective control of the capital since last September, seized the presidential palace in January.

In February, they dissolved the government and parliament and formed a presidential council to replace Hadi but later that month he succeeded in escaping from the capital and establishing his authority in Aden.

Saudi Arabia, a major supporter of Hadi which has repeatedly slammed the Houthis' "coup", has offered to host Yemen crisis talks and said in a joint statement with fellow Gulf states that the Shiite militia were free to join them.

Late on Sunday, the Houthi-run Saba news agency quoted militia chief Abdulmalik Al Houthi as saying that his group had been in "indirect contact" with Riyadh to improve relations on the "basis of equality and non-interference in one another's affairs".

Saudi Arabia, which has blacklisted the militia as a "terrorist" group and accused it of taking Yemen into the orbit of Shiite Iran, has not confirmed the contacts.