RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council has accused the Houthi movement of staging a coup in Yemen after they announced they were dissolving parliament and forming a new government, Kuwait’s news agency said.
“The Houthi coup marks a grave and unacceptable escalation… and endangers the security, stability, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen,” the GCC said in a statement from its Riyadh headquarters.
The GCC had urged the Houthis to pull out of Sanaa, which the militia overran in September.
The GCC said its own security was linked to that of Yemen and vowed to take “all the necessary measures to defend their interests.”
The Gulf states called on the UN Security Council to intervene and put an end to the “coup which has placed Yemen and its people in a dark tunnel.”
The turmoil in Yemen has raised fears that the country could become a failed state. The opposition of the GCC may signal growing isolation for Yemen and reflects Sunni Muslim hostility toward the Houthi group.
“This Houthi coup is a dangerous escalation which we reject and is unacceptable. It totally contradicts the spirit of pluralism and coexistence which Yemen has known,” the GCC statement added.
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in three cities in central Yemen to protest the Houthis seizing power. Houthi gunmen dispersed dozens of activists near the capital’s main university by firing into the air.
Protesters chanted slogans calling the Houthi moves a “coup” and demanded the group withdraw its forces from major cities.
The Houthis dissolved parliament on Friday and set up a five-member presidential council to form a transitional government to govern for two years.
Abdel Malik Al-Houthi, the group’s leader, said he was open to all parties playing a role in Yemen’s future.
“Our hand is extended to every political force in this country … the space is open for partnership, cooperation and brotherhood and now everybody bears their responsibility for building, not destruction,” he said in a televised speech.
Tensions ran high in Sanaa on Saturday, with armed Houthis out in force near main government buildings.
A rudimentary bomb exploded outside the republican palace in Sanaa, wounding three militiamen, eyewitnesses said.
Yemen’s Houthi movement dissolved parliament on Friday and said it would set up a new interim government.
The Houthis entered Sanaa in September and began to fan out into more cities in Yemen’s south and west.
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