Yemen, Shiites agree to deal

SANAA, Yemen – Yemeni government officials and Shiite rebels signed a peace agreement on Sunday following days of violence that left more than 140 people dead and sent thousands fleeing their homes, state media said, although major rebel advances earlier in the day deepened a sense of uncertainty in the country.

The agreement calls for an immediate cease-fire and the formation of a technocratic government within a month after consultations with all political parties, a U.N. envoy said later at a joint news conference with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in the capital, Sanaa.

“The head of the government may not belong to any political group,” Jamal Benomer said, reading from the document, which, he added, also calls for security forces to be restructured based on consultations with the political parties.

Just hours earlier, state media reported that the country’s prime minister had resigned, but the president’s office denied it had received any such request.

The conflicting information came as the rebels, called Hawthis, seized numerous strategically important installations in Sanaa, including the Defense Ministry, the Central Bank, a key military base and Iman University, military and security officials said. An official at the Defense Ministry later said that the situation there was “normal and stable” and that the building had not been attacked.

The Hawthis have in recent months routed their Islamist foes in a series of battles north of Sanaa, and in recent days consolidated and expanded their grip on areas just to the north of the capital.

Their foes have traditionally been Sunni Islamist militias allied with the government or the fundamentalist Islah party. The Hawthis have been pressing for a change of government and what they see as a fair share of power.

In many cases, officials said the rebels handed over installations they captured to the military police or to popular committees comprising Hawthis and local residents to protect them against looting.

However, they dealt harshly with personnel and installations associated with their foes in years of war, such as the university, which was seen as a bastion of Sunni hard-liners and a recruitment hub for militants.

On Sunday afternoon, the official SABA news agency announced the resignation of Mohammed Salem Bassindwa but gave no details. A subsequent report by the agency quoted the president’s office as saying it had not received any such request.