Saleh Party Rejects Proposed Relocation Of Yemen Talks

The party of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Friday rejected calls to relocate the venue of national dialogue talks from capital Sanaa to another city.



The website of Saleh's General People's Congress Party "ed one party leader as saying that the party – along with other political forces – had rejected calls to move the dialogue venue to another city because it wanted all of Yemen's political forces to participate in the talks.



"Moving the dialogue to another venue will mean some of these political forces will boycott the talks," the party leader said.



The party called on Yemen's political forces to return to the negotiating table and give priority to the country's national interests.



On Thursday, UN Special envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar said a new location for the UN-brokered talks would be announced within days.



"Resuming dialogue talks is the key to extricating Yemen from its problems," Benomar told a press conference following a meeting with President ABD Rabbuh Mansour Hadi in the southern city of Aden.



"A new location will be announced for the talks within days, in line with a mandate from the UN Security Council," he added.



Earlier this week, negotiations between Yemeni political factions and the Shiite Houthi group were suspended following Hadi's departure from Sanaa to Aden.  



Several political parties, including the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islah party, have pulled out of the dialogue to protest the Shiite group's seizure of their leaders, some of whom have been barred from traveling to Aden to meet with the embattled president.



The country has remained in a state of chaos since last September, when the Houthis took over Sanaa before moving on to establish control in other provinces as well.



On Saturday, Hadi fled Sanaa – where he had been placed under house arrest by the Houthis – to Aden.



Upon his arrival in the southern city, Hadi dismissed as "null" and "illegitimate" all recent decrees issued by the Shiite militant group. He also wrote to Yemen's parliament withdrawing a resignation he had tendered earlier.



On Feb. 6, the Houthis issued a "constitutional declaration" dissolving parliament and establishing a 551-member transitional council.



The declaration, however, was rejected by most of Yemen's political forces – along with some neighboring Gulf countries – which described it as a "coup against constitutional legitimacy."



www.aa.com.tr/en - Sana