KHARTOUM, Sudan
At a Sunday joint press conference in Khartoum with his Sudanese counterpart, Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi said the Yemeni people rejected what he described as Iranian influence and Shia religious doctrine.
“Our people will not accept the transfer of Iran’s twelver-Shia doctrine to Yemen,” said Hadi, who arrived in Khartoum on Saturday for a two-day visit.
“The Yemeni people have been patient for fifty years of failed governments,” he said, adding: “The Houthis want to bring the failed experience of Iran to Yemen.”
Yemen descended into chaos last September, when Shia Houthi militias -- which are said to enjoy the support of Shia Iran -- overran capital Sanaa.
In April, the Shia militant group also managed to capture Yemen’s southern Aden province, forcing President Hadi -- along with most of his government -- to flee to Saudi Arabia.
In recent weeks, with the help of a Saudi Arabia-led air coalition, pro-Hadi forces have managed to retake several strategic parts of Yemen, including Aden.
Yet despite these recent tactical successes, Hadi and his government have yet to return to the war-torn country.
Speaking from Khartoum, Hadi said he had told Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi that the establishment of Iranian Shia doctrine and influence “cannot happen in Yemen”.
He also asserted that al-Houthi “doesn’t represent Yemen’s entire [Shia] Zaidi sect”, adding that the Houthi leader only enjoyed the support of “10 percent of the population of Yemen’s Saada province”, a known Houthi stronghold.
Hadi went on to thank Sudan -- a member of the Saudi-led air coalition -- for supporting what he described as “Yemen’s constitutional legitimacy”.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, for his part, stressed Khartoum’s continued support for Hadi’s government-in-exile, saying this support would continue until “the end of this critical stage in Yemen”.
“The president of Yemen has assured us that they [i.e., Saudi-backed pro-Hadi forces] have retaken many positions [in Yemen] and were making headway in other areas,” al-Bashir added.
Hadi’s current visit to Khartoum is his first since taking office in early 2012 following the resignation of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose supporters are currently allied with the Houthis.
- Target: Sanaa
On the same day, Yasser al-Awadi, assistant secretary-general of Saleh’s General People's Congress Party, made light of reports that pro-Hadi forces -- backed up by Saudi-led air power -- planned to recapture Sanaa, which until now remains in the hands of the Houthis.
“Sanaa is out of the foreigners’ reach,” he said.
“Yemen is steadfast and its people will triumph,” he added, calling on supporters “not to be fooled by this psychological war”.
Notably, in comments to Anadolu Agency on Aug. 18, Yemeni government spokesman Rajeh Badi had said that pro-Hadi forces had retaken much of the country from Houthi control and were now hoping to retake Sanaa, along with the Amran and Saada provinces.
In a related development, a car bomb exploded near the U.S. embassy in Sanaa on Saturday, followed by heavy gunfire.
Witnesses told an Anadolu Agency correspondent that the bomb had exploded in the Sawan district, causing considerable human and material damage.
No group has yet claimed responsibility, but the attack follows several earlier suicide operations claimed by an allegedly Daesh-linked group that has targeted sites held by the Houthis.
And on Sunday, a security official was gunned down in the government-controlled southern Aden province.
According to local security sources, Col. Abdul Hakim Snaidi, director of security operations in Aden, was killed instantly after being shot by unidentified gunmen.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
