A number of deputies loyal to the General People’s Congress (GPC) party in Sanaa were able to escape from the rebel-controlled capital on Thursday following growing disputes with the Houthi militias.
Five members of Yemen’s Parliament, including deputy speaker Naser Bajeil managed to flee Sanaa, six months after being held by the Houthis.
Sources from the GPC said Bajeil arrived Wednesday in the city of Atak in Shabwa province, after fleeing Houthis’ grip in Sanaa and the tight security control imposed by the militias on high-ranking party officials.
The sources added that four other GPC deputies, including Abdul-Rahman Maazab, head of the parliamentary bloc representing the province of Ibb, had arrived to the temporary capital of Aden, before some of them later heading to the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
According to the same sources, the five MPs had secretly sold their houses and belongings in Sanaa as part of their preparations to flee.
A parliamentarian in Sana’a, who wished to remain anonymous, told Asharq Al-Awsat that there are currently extensive contacts between GPC party members in Sanaa and those residing abroad to help dozens of other deputies -who were forced by the militias to attend sessions lacking quorums in an attempt to approve the rebels’ illegitimate laws – to flee.
Meanwhile Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi appointed Thursday the country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Khaled Hussein al-Yamani, as the country’s minister of foreign affairs to replace Abdulmalik al-Mekhlafi who became presidential advisor.
The Yemeni news agency said that Dr. Ahmed Awadh bin Mubarak will assume the role of Yemen's representative to the UN, while retaining his current position as ambassador to the United States.
