SANAA, Yemen—The Yemeni government submitted its resignation on Thursday amid a heated standoff between powerful Shiite rebels who control the capital and the embattled US-backed president, who has been held “captive” in his house for the past two days.
Prime Minister Khaled Bahah’s resignation came as the U.N. envoy to the Arab world’s poorest country met with representatives from the Shiite rebels, known as Houthis and other political factions to try to implement a deal reached Wednesday to end the crisis.
Under the agreement—struck while the rebels confined Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in his private home—the group’s militias were to withdraw from the presidential palace and key areas of the capital they have overrun in recent days in return for political concessions.
