SANAA, Yemen (Dispatches) – Yemen’s dominant Houthi movement on Friday dissolved parliament and said a new interim assembly would be formed, a move that could ease a power struggle that forced the president to step down last month.
The new assembly will elect a five-member interim presidential council to manage the country’s affairs in a transitional period of up to two years, according to a televised statement.
Some political leaders attended the announcement which took place at the Presidential Palace. Former interior and defense ministers were also there, indicating that the announcement has the blessing of some other political factions.
Yemen has been in political limbo since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the government of Prime Minister Khaled Bahah resigned after the Houthis seized the presidential palace and confined the head of state to his residence.
The Houthis, who became power brokers when they overran Sanaa in September, had been holding talks with main political factions trying to agree on a way out of the standoff.
The Shia Muslim movement had set a Wednesday deadline for political factions to agree a way out of the crisis, otherwise, the group said, it would impose its own solution.
The Arabian Peninsula country is fighting one of the most formidable branches of Al-Qaeda.
In a televised announcement from the Republican Palace in Sanaa, the Houthi fighters said they are forming a five-member presidential council that will replace President Hadi for an interim two-year period.
The Houthis also said that "Revolutionary Committee” would be in charge of forming a new parliament with 551 members.
The statement in Sanaa, read by an unidentified announcer, said that it marked "a new era that will take Yemen to safe shores”.
It comes after political parties failed to meet a Houthi-imposed deadline on Wednesday to agree on an acceptable way forward.