SANAA
Supporters of President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and those of the powerful Shiite Houthi group staged rival rallies in Yemen on Friday.
Thousands of Hadi supporters gathered in the southern Taiz province to demand that the national capital be relocated to the southern city of Aden, where Hadi hopes to reinstate his embattled presidency.
Protesters also shouted slogans against the recent "occupation of Sanaa" by Houthi militants.
Anti-Houthi protesters also staged a demonstration in the western Al-Hudaydah province.
The central Ibb province, meanwhile, saw rallies by both camps.
Houthi supporters shouted slogans in support of the "constitutional declaration" issued from capital Sanaa by the Shiite group earlier this month.
Houthi supporters also gathered in Sanaa and the western city of Hajjah to express support for the group's takeover of the capital last September.
Last week, Hadi fled Sanaa – where he had been placed under house arrest by the Houthis – to the southern city of Aden.
Upon his arrival in Aden, Hadi dismissed as "null" and "illegitimate" all recent Houthi-issued decrees. He also wrote to Yemen's parliament, withdrawing a resignation he had earlier tendered.
On Feb. 6, the Houthis issued 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 some neighboring Gulf countries – which described it as a "coup against constitutional legitimacy."
