SANAA (AFP) ― President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi warned Tuesday of “civil war” in Sunni-majority Yemen, vowing to restore state authority, as Shiite rebels cried victory over their apparent seizure of much of the capital.
Yemen “is facing a conspiracy” and “the danger of slipping into civil war,” Hadi said in a speech at the presidential palace, two days after rebels took most other key state institutions in Sanaa virtually without a fight.
Rebel leader Abdelmalek al-Huthi congratulated his fighters on the “victory of their popular revolution that has established a new era based on cooperation.”
In a televised speech, he urged a partnership with rivals from the Sunni Al-Islah (Reform) party, which his forces have been fighting for months.
Hundreds of rebels manned checkpoints on the airport road and other major thoroughfares Tuesday, while heavily armed patrols cruised the streets in four-wheel-drive vehicles, AFP correspondents reported.
Earlier, Hadi evoked the specter of foreign plots aimed at torpedoing progress in Yemen.
“Internal and foreign forces (have) allied to … overthrow the Yemeni model” of power transition following an Arab Spring-inspired uprising, the president said.
Yemen was the only Arab Spring country where an uprising led to a political settlement by which Hadi replaced former autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Insurgents, alongside small detachments of military police, were guarding public offices the rebels had entered Sunday, including the main government building, parliament, army headquarters and the central bank.
But Hadi insisted: “Sanaa will not fall.”
U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar had mediated an accord Saturday aimed at ending fighting between the rebels and Sunni Islamists, but it was only signed the following day, hours after the takeover.
He told Al-Arabiya television Monday that the lack of resistance to the rebels seemed to signify the collapse of the security forces in Sanaa, warning that events of recent days “could lead to the collapse of the Yemeni state and the end of the political transition.”
The speed of the rebel advance reflected the fragility of Yemen’s regime three years after the uprising, which Hadi touched on in his speech.
“You were shocked to learn that public and military institutions were handed over (to rebels), but be aware that the plot was already brewing,” said the president.
For his part, Huthi thanked the army for refusing to “suppress the revolutionaries,” while insisting that “our arms are extended for peace and understanding.”
Authorities have repeatedly accused Iran of backing the rebels, who also appear influenced by Lebanon’s powerful Shiite militia Hezbollah, which is backed by Tehran.
Also known as Ansarullah, the rebels waged a decade-long insurgency in the mountainous north before advancing on Sanaa last month.
Sunday‘s deal aimed to put the troubled transition back on track in impoverished Yemen, which borders oil kingpin Saudi Arabia and is a key U.S. ally in the fight against al-Qaida.
Saleh is himself a Zaidi Shiite, a community that forms 30 percent of Yemen’s mostly Sunni population but is the majority in the northern highlands, including Sanaa province.
He has been repeatedly accused by his opponents of impeding the transition.
“There is no doubt that Saleh has facilitated Huthi expansion in and around the capital,” said April Longley Alley of the International Crisis Group.
“At the very least he has not discouraged his tribal and political supporters from supporting Huthi mobilization.”
However, “the extent of his involvement is unclear,” she said.
Under Sunday’s deal, Hadi has three days to bring a rebel representative into government as an adviser and to name a neutral replacement for Prime Minister Mohamed Basindawa, who has resigned.
A security protocol to the weekend accord would require the rebels to hand over the institutions they have seized and to start dismantling armed protest camps in and around Sanaa once a new premier is named.
But rebel representatives refused to sign it.
The deal also requires Hadi to appoint an adviser from the separatist Southern Movement which has been campaigning for the secession of the formerly independent south, another major obstacle to stability.
Huthi also pledge support for the southerners, saying they had not yet “obtained justice.”
