AFTER forging an unlikely alliance with old foes in the Iran-allied Houthi militia, former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, it seems, is seeing reason and is trying to wriggle out of the four-month war in the impoverished country. Reports on Thursday suggested that his representatives are in talks with diplomats from the United States, Britain and the United Arab Emirates to help end the war. “There are negotiations in Cairo between the leaders of the Congress party and diplomats from the United States, Britain and the UAE in order to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Yemen and to lift the siege on the grounds that the continuation of the war and the siege serve extremist groups,” Adel Shuja, a leader of the party Saleh leads, told Reuters. “These negotiations have made significant progress so far.” Saleh's loyalists in Yemen's army are a key force in the country's civil war, and the talks are the first between the strongman and the key member of the Arab coalition opposing him. The Emirates had been bombing his forces for weeks and the negotiations coincide with major Emirati and Saudi-backed military gains in the country's south. It was not immediately clear whether forces linked to Saleh had pulled back from battlefields around the strategic port of Aden, which local fighters armed by Gulf states and accompanied by Emirati military trainers seized in a surprise offensive this week from Yemen's dominant Houthi group after months of stalemate. A wily political operator who played Yemen's rival armed and tribal groups off each other for 33 years, Saleh enjoyed Gulf support until “Arab Spring” unrest forced him to resign in 2012. An ousted but still influential figure in Yemen's security forces, the ex-leader forged an alliance with the Houthi militia that seized the capital Sanaa in September and pressed south toward Aden alongside Saleh forces, triggering the Arab intervention on March 26. Meanwhile, military officials in Aden say Saudi-backed troops and local militias are in full control of the strategic port city after repelling Shiite rebels from their last holdout in the city's presidential compound. The officials said new checkpoints were erected around the city Thursday to search for remnants of the rebel forces who lost control of the presidential compound overnight following days of intense fighting. Airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition continued north of Aden and troops pushed their way into provinces east and north of Aden in an attempt to secure control of Aden, officials said. Fighting was most intense around the rebel-controlled military base of Al-Anad in the province of Lahj. — With input from Agencies
