(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Hundreds of Yemenis took to the streets here yesterday to demand the withdrawal of Shia rebels, in a first protest against the insurgents since they overran the capital last week.
Protesters from the February 11 Revolution movement marched along the main Zubairi road in Sana'a chanting slogans against the Houthi rebels who remain in control of most of the city.
"We don't want Houthis any more," shouted the demonstrators, whose movement was behind the 2011 uprising which ousted former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Houthi rebels are heavily deployed across Sana'a but there were no reports of confrontations between the insurgents and the demonstrators.
The rebels swept down from their stronghold in the rugged northwestern mountains last month, demanding economic and political reforms.
Last week, they seized key state installations without resistance, most of them in northern Sana'a, after clashes on the city's outskirts with Islamists killed more than 270 people.
The demonstrators yesterday put out a statement demanding the "withdrawal of all armed militias from the capital and the return of security forces".
They also urged the Houthi rebels to "apologise to the Yemeni people" and implement a UN-brokered peace accord, including a security protocol that stipulated their withdrawal from Sana'a once a new prime minister is named.
However, President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has failed so far to name a new premier as stipulated by the agreement. After initial hesitation, the rebels signed the security protocol, state and rebel media said on Saturday. Yemeni authorities accuse Iran of backing the rebels, who also appear influenced by Lebanon's powerful Tehran-backed Shia militia Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has said "unprecedented challenges" facing Yemen since rebels took over the capital could threaten international security, and called for swift action to deal with instability in its southern neighbour.
The kingdom, which shares a long border with Yemen, welcomed an agreement signed on September 21 to form a new government incorporating the Houthi rebels and some Yemeni southern separatist forces. But the kingdom fears the accord could benefit its main regional foe Iran and might also bolster the Al Qaeda group.
In some of his strongest language about Yemen to date, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal told the UN General Assembly that hopes for an end to the crisis had been wrecked by what he suggested was the Houthis' failure to honour the deal. "The lack of implementation of the security annexe of the agreement and the lack of implementation of the agreement itself in the required manner by the Houthi group has dashed these hopes," he said in a speech circulated by the Saudi mission at the United Nations in New York.
"Yemen faces accelerating and extremely dangerous conditions that require us all to look and propose the necessary solutions to confront these unprecedented challenges," Prince Saud said.
Prince Saud said Yemen's violence "will no doubt extend to threaten stability and security on the regional and international arena that could prove difficult to put down regardless of the resources and efforts that may be exerted." Saudi Arabia in 2011 played a key role to push forward a Gulf power transfer deal that saw long-serving president Ali Abdullah Saleh step down after months of protests in 2011 in favour of his deputy.
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