Houthis 'consider withdrawing from Sanaa': Report

(MENAFN- Arab News) JEDDAH: Yemen's Houthi movement is considering withdrawing from Sanaa and handing over government facilities to state authorities Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.
The Houthis' Security Committee held a meeting in Sanaa on Monday to discuss the possibility of pulling out of the capital and handing over security checkpoints and government facilities to state authorities a Yemen source told Asharq Al-Awsat.
Jalal Al-Ruwaishan the Houthi-appointed interior minister presided over the meeting. Members of the so-called Revolutionary Committee took part in the talks.
The step comes after the Iran-backed group suffered a series of defeats at the hands of forces loyal to Yemen's exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi backed by the Saudi-led coalition who recently retook the strategic city of Aden and much of the country's south.
The Houthis overran Sanaa in September 2014 toppling the government and placing the President Hadi and other senior members of his cabinet under house arrest.
Meanwhile Yemen's former President Ali Abdulah Saleh reportedly issued directions to his followers in the General People's Congress (GPC) party not to follow Houthis' orders in a fresh sign of the widening rift between the former president and the Houthi insurgents.
President Hadi and Saudi Arabia accuse Saleh who wields strong influence within Yemen's army of facilitating the Houthi control of Sanaa and other parts of Yemen.
The new instructions a Sana'a political source maintained came after Saleh began to feel that his party members 'have drawn closer to the Houthis than to (the GPC).'
'The GPC lacks a political strategy and is mainly based on [personal] gains' the source added.
Saleh over the past months has been trying to secure a safe exit for himself and his family the source said 'But he does not want to look defeated.'
'(Saleh) wants the war to stop so that he can remain GPC leader which he thinks should participate in the future political process' the source added.
In a letter attributed to Saleh the former president urged his followers not to believe rumors about disputes arising between the GPC and the Houthi Ansar Allah group.