Yemen rebels: threat to stability?
Houthi leaders demand the government resign as they seek more political influence and territorial control.
A military offensive by a Shia movement in Yemen is threatening to bring down the transitional government.
Houthi rebels have taken their fight to the heart of the capital Sanaa. They are demanding that the president dissolves what they describe as a corrupt and inneffective government in favour of a more representative body.
Tens of thousands of Houthi supporters have rallied on the streets of Sanaa, encouraged in part by a joint demand to revoke a steep increase in fuel prices which has hit Yemen’s poor.
Yemen is going through a period of political transition, more than two years after long-time leader Ali Abdullah Saleh bowed to mass protests and stepped down.
Houthi rebels are seeking a single region in the north within the federal government, and a greater share of power.
But do their demands threaten to undermine a fragile stability at a sensitive moment in Yemen’s democratic transition?
Presenter: Sami Zeidan
Guests:
Mohammed Qubaty – Yemen’s former Ambassador to Lebanon and Cyprus, and a previous adviser to Prime Minister Mohammed Salim Basindawa.
Peter Salisbury – a journalist and former consultant for Chatham House on Yemen.
April Alley – a senior analyst on the Arabian Peninsula at the International Crisis Group.