Houthis lift house arrest on Yemeni prime minister, cabinet

SANAA - Yemen's dominant Houthi militia group on Monday released Prime Minister Khaled Bahah and all his cabinet ministers after nearly two months under house arrest, government spokesman Rajeh Badi said.

In a statement on his Facebook page, Bahah - who resigned in January after the Houthis captured the presidential palace - said the move was a goodwill gesture to ease talks on Yemen's political transition. But he said he had no intention of resuming his post.

"This comes as an expression of sincere good intentions...(the government) confirms it does not desire to return to its duties in light of the exceptional circumstances," he wrote.

The Houthis invaded the capital Sanaa and fanned out across much of central Yemen in September in what they hailed as a revolution against misrule and corruption.

A power struggle with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi began when the militants laid siege to his residence and forced him, Bahah and the cabinet into house arrest in January.

Hadi has since escaped to the southern port city of Aden and reclaimed the presidency, setting up a rival administration there backed by Gulf neighbours, who have rejected the Houthi takeover as a coup. Defence Minister General Mahmoud al-Subaihi has also fled Sanaa to Aden.

United Nations-brokered talks have struggled to heal Yemen's political rifts and head off the prospect of civil war, which the cabinet's freedom may now ease.

"This opens the way for political factions to carry out their national responsibility to come up with an agreement which works to restore a transition," Bahah said.

Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said on Sunday the group was engaged in indirect talks with neighbour Saudi Arabia, in the first known dialogue between the Shi'ite Muslim group and the Sunni regional powerhouse since the Houthis' takeover last year. Saudi Arabia, Yemen's main benefactor, suspended aid soon after the takeover.