Houthi rebels in Yemen said Sunday (October 2nd) they will establish their own government of "national salvation" to rival the internationally recognised administration of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi in the south, AFP reported.
The move was decided by a "supreme political council" created in July by the Iran-backed rebels and forces allied to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
In early August, UN-backed peace talks in Kuwait between Yemen's warring parties were suspended.
On Sunday, Saleh al-Sammad, head of the supreme political council, appointed Abdel Aziz Ben Habtoor to form a government of national salvation, the Houthis announced.
Ben Habtoor is a former governor of the southern port city of Aden and a member of the political bureau of Saleh's General People's Congress.
The rebel announcement coincided with the presence in the Saudi capital Riyadh of UN Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and the arrival in Sanaa of UN humanitarian operations chief Stephen O'Brien.
