Yemen allies meet in Sanaa to iron out differences

By Ali Oweida

SANAA (AA) - Former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Wednesday met with Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi to discuss reported differences between the two allies.

“Saleh and al-Houthi met face to face,” Nabil al-Sufi, a journalist known to be close to the former, said via Facebook.

The two men, he added, had held “frank discussions” about the current situation in capital Sanaa, which the Houthis overran -- with the help of pro-Saleh forces -- in 2014.

“We are now waiting for the two sides to reiterate their commitments as coalition partners,” al-Sufi said.

“Recent decisions taken by the Houthi leadership, by which certain [pro-Saleh] officials in the judiciary and civil institutions were removed, will be reviewed,” he added.

Wednesday’s talks were the first of their kind between the two leaders since the alliance was shaken last month amid accusations that the Houthis were purging pro-Saleh figures from sensitive state positions.

Yemen has remained in a state of war since 2014, when the Houthis and pro-Saleh forces overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa, forcing Yemen’s pro-Saudi government to retreat to the coastal city of Aden.