SANA, Yemen — Yemen’s Western-backed president and his Cabinet resigned Thursday amid deepening turmoil that left Shiite rebels in effective control and threw into question this nation’s continued participation in the U.S. fight against terrorism.
As President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi succumbed to an apparent coup attempt by the rebels, a government official confirmed that he had lost control over the military and intelligence agencies that coordinate with the United States in operations against al-Qaeda’s most dangerous affiliate.
The crisis threatens to weaken the United States’ campaign against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen and has targeted the United States and Europe.
The government’s collapse could plunge Yemen into full-scale civil war. The Houthi rebels are considered to be backed by Shiite-majority Iran, although they deny it. Yemen’s population is majority Sunni, and there is a strong separatist movement in the Sunni-dominated south.
The resignations in Yemen are likely to set off alarms not just in Washington but in Sunni Arab capitals, especially in neighboring Saudi Arabia, which has backed Hadi’s government with billions of dollars and views Iran as its foremost regional rival.
Hadi and his government resigned just a day after agreeing to a power-sharing deal that extended the Houthis’ control over Yemen. The 69-year-old president, a former major general, initially appeared ready to ride out the chaos under the arrangement with the rebels.
But government officials accused the insurgents, led by Abdulmalik al-Houthi, of failing to uphold their side of the agreement, refusing to pull back from positions they had taken around the presidential palace and residence and continuing to hold a Hadi aide who was kidnapped by the group.
“They have been applying too much pressure on him,” said presidential adviser Yaseen Makawi by telephone. Hadi “had no choice but to resign,” he said.
In a letter to the chairman of parliament, the president alluded to the Houthi offensive, which began in September, as the reason for his resignation, although he did not mention the insurgent group by name.
“I would like to apologize personally to you and to the parliament and to the Yemeni people now that we have reached a dead end,” he said in the statement, which was reported widely in Yemeni media.
Prime Minister Khaled Bahah, who was besieged by the Houthis at his palace this week, said in a Facebook posting that he stepped down to avoid being drawn “into an abyss” in which the country had policies “based on no law.”
“We don’t want to be a party to what is happening or will happen,” he added.
One of Hadi’s advisers, Sultan al-Atwani, said the mass resignations resulted from frustration over the Houthis’ stripping the president of all powers — including over the military and intelligence agencies — even though they had signed the power-sharing deal.
The president was stripped of his authority to coordinate on U.S. drone strikes aimed at al-Qaeda targets, he said. Al-Atwani said he no longer had the authority to coordinate with a U.S. drone program that attacks al-Qaeda militants.
There was no immediate response from officials in Washington.
The government was formed in November as part of a peace deal brokered after the Houthis overran the capital in September and captured large swaths of territory, including nine provincial capitals.
It was not clear whether the rebels now have full control over the intelligence branches, but analysts said the developments spelled trouble for continued Yemeni counterterrorism coordination with the United States — notably on the drone program.
“It’s expected that the Houthis are going to change the composition and focus of the intelligence services to gear them toward maintaining Houthi influence, primarily,” said Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. “This would divert attention away from counterterrorism operations.”
Houthi officials have said they oppose the U.S. drone program, calling it a violation of Yemen’s sovereignty.
