Riyadh to host Yemen talks at President Hadi’s request

RIYADH — The Gulf monarchies have agreed to a request by Yemen's beleaguered president to host talks in Riyadh aimed at pulling their impoverished neighbour out of crisis, the Saudi royal Cabinet said.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who has been based in Yemen's second city Aden since escaping the Shiite militia-controlled capital last month, made the request after failing to reach agreement with the militia and their backers on a venue inside Yemen.

UN-brokered reconciliations talks, which had been taking place in Sanaa, have broken down since Hadi's flight to Aden.

The Western-backed president insists they can no longer be held in the capital and the militia and their supporters have threatened to boycott talks anywhere else.

"The secretariat general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is going to make the necessary arrangements" for the talks which Hadi requested in a message to Saudi Arabia's King Salman, the royal Cabinet said.

It did not give a date for the talks.

Hadi proposed that the Riyadh meeting convene "all the Yemeni political parties anxious to preserve the security and stability of Yemen," said the statement carried by the official SPA news agency late on Sunday.

He underlined that the conference should reject "the coup d'etat" of the Houthi militia, who seized power in Sanaa on February 6 after overrunning the capital last September.

Several GCC states, led by Saudi Arabia, have moved their embassies to Aden after an exodus of foreign diplomats from Sanaa in February over security concerns.

The six Sunni-ruled Gulf states are deeply suspicious of the Houthis, fearing they will take Yemen into the orbit of Shiite Iran.