Hadi declares Aden 'Yemen's capital'

ADEN, Yemen

Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi on Saturday declared the southern city of Aden as his country's capital.

The Yemeni President also announced capital Sanaa to be an "occupied city."

During a meeting with government officials from the southern province of Hadhramaut, Hadi said he would continue to hold his country's national dialogue talks.

"We have told them [Yemen's political forces] that Sanaa is now a city occupied by the Houthis," Hadi was quoted by a meeting participant as saying.

The participant added that the Yemeni President told meeting attendees that five of Yemen's six regions had refused what he described as the "coup" staged by the Houthis.

Some political sources, meanwhile, said that the decision of the Yemeni President to declare Aden the capital of his country could not be binding without a presidential decree.

On Saturday, Hadi did not issue this decree, the sources said.

Last month, Hadi fled Sanaa – where he had been kept under house arrest by the Houthi militants for weeks – to Aden.

Upon his arrival, Hadi dismissed as "null" and "illegitimate" all recent Houthi-issued decrees. He also wrote to parliament withdrawing a resignation he had tendered earlier.

On Feb. 6, the Houthis issued what they described as a constitutional declaration dissolving parliament and establishing a 551-member transitional council.

The declaration, however, was rejected by most of Yemen's political forces – along with neighboring Gulf countries – which described it as a coup against constitutional legitimacy.