Yemen's Shia, Sunni Rivals Hold Rare Meeting

Yemen's main Sunni Islamist party says its top leaders have met with the powerful Shiite fighters, in a rare meeting that might help ease the country's political deadlock.

Yemen's main Sunni Islamist party says its top leaders have met with the powerful Shiite fighters, in a rare meeting that might help ease the country's political deadlock.



The Islah party says in a statement Friday that a delegation met with Abdel-Malek al-Houthi, the leader of Shiite group known as the Houthis, on Thursday. The statement says the meeting was aimed at easing tensions between the rival groups.



Yemen’s Shia Houthi movement draws its name from the tribe of its founding leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi.



The Houthi movement played a key role in the popular revolution that forced former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.



Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.