SANA’A: Representatives of Yemen’s ex-leader Ali Abdullah Saleh are in talks with diplomats from the US, Britain and the UAE to help end four months of war in the impoverished country, a member of his party said.
“There are negotiations in Cairo between the leaders of the Congress party and diplomats from the US, Britain and the UAE to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Yemen and lift the siege on the grounds as continuation of the war and the siege serve extremist groups,” Adel Shuja, a leader of the party Saleh leads, said.
“Negotiations have made significant progress so far.”
Saleh’s loyalists in Yemen’s army are a key force in the civil war, and talks are the first between the strongman and the key member of the Arab coalition opposing him.
The UAE had been bombing his forces for weeks and negotiations coincide with Emirati and Saudi-backed military gains in the country’s south.
It was not immediately clear whether forces linked to Saleh had pulled back from battlefields around the port of Aden, which local fighters armed by Gulf states and accompanied by UAE military trainers seized in a surprise offensive this week from the dominant Houthi group after months of stalemate.
A wily political operator who played Yemen’s rival armed and tribal groups off each other for 33 years, Saleh enjoyed Gulf support until Arab Spring unrest forced him to resign in 2012.
The ousted but still influential figure in Yemen’s security forces forged an unlikely alliance with old foes in the Iran-allied Houthi militia, which seized the capital Sana’a in September and pressed south towards Aden alongside Saleh forces, triggering the Arab intervention on March 26. AFP
