Government spokesman Rajeh Badi said Bahah, who is also vice president, was accompanied by seven ministers when he arrived in Aden, where local fighters backed by Saudi-led forces drove the Houthi movement out in July.
Advertisement
It’s Bahah’s second visit to Aden since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the cabinet fled to Saudi Arabia to take refuge in March.
The civilian death-toll is on the rise in recent weeks, after the coalition stepped up air strikes on Houthi positions following rebels’ missile attack in Marib province on September 4 which killed more than 60 Gulf Arab troops.
“I hope that the government goes towards recapturing the country by using force and in the same time trying to solve the problem of the Houthis“, Mr Al Rabei said.
The campaign aims to prevent the Houthis from seizing power in Yemen, as Saudi Arabia claimed the Shiite group is backed by Iran.
It added that Yemeni army units and Houthi rebels have besieged two Qatari battalions in Marib and that Qatar has appealed to Saudi Arabia not to bomb the region to ensure its citizens will not be victims of “friendly fire”.
A government building located in the Walaari area in the south of Sanaa was been targeted by the strike, as per the sources.
Local officials say some 300 local police officers have returned to work since July and some police stations have resumed operations with the help of advisors from the United Arab Emirates.
UN-sponsored talks in Geneva between the Yemeni government and the Houthis in June failed to achieve a breakthrough.
In response to a question from The National about the possibility of negotiations between the government and the rebels, Mr Bahah said: “There will not be any negotiation before” the government reclaims the country.
Analysts say that the battle for Sanaa is unlikely to bear fruit soon. In the spring of 2015, he asked leaders in Saudi Arabia if he could safely leave Yemen, but they said no, Al Jazeera reported.
Advertisement
Twenty-two churches operated in Aden when it was a British colony before 1967, but only a few remain, used rarely by foreign workers and African refugees.
