Yemeni President Reaches Deal With Houthi Rebels To End Insurgency

After days of political turmoil and talks of a coup d' etat in Sana'a, Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi agreed on Wednesday to enter into a tentative deal with Houthi rebels who called off their offensive, ending a siege of the President's official residence.

Hadi reached a deal with the rebels who agreed to release his chief of staff and withdraw their forces after they seized key government buildings in Yemen's capital.

The agreement included deep concessions to the rebels such as rewriting parts of Yemen's constitution, CNN reported, quoting an official who had access to a draft text of the peace deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, the government will accept changes in the draft of the new constitution that would grant the Houthis more political power.

In a Twitter message, Yemen's Information Minister Nadia Sakkaf confirmed the existence of the draft accord, which had been announced earlier by the state-run SABA News Agency.

Meanwhile, a Yemeni presidential aide said the agreement with the rebels would strip Hadi of some of his significant authority, the Washington Post reported.

Under the deal, Hadi agreed to increase the Houthis' representation in parliament and heed their constitutional demands, SABA News Agency said.

The document also calls for more participation in the government by people in southern Yemen, where a separatist movement has gained momentum in recent years, the news agency added.

The recent fighting had been the most intense since the Houthis stormed into the capital and began taking control of Yemen's institutions, as well as at least nine provincial capitals, in September.

The Houthi rebels, comprising of Shiite Muslims who have long felt marginalized in the majority Sunni country, abducted the President's chief of staff over the weekend before it took over the presidential palace in Sana'a on Tuesday.

The latest rebel offensive raised fears that Yemen could plunge into a power vacuum, if not a full-scale civil war, that could be exploited by militants linked to al-Qaeda.

The chaos in Yemen has been a cause for concern far beyond the country's borders, alarming Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, which see the Shiite insurgents as proxies for Iran.

For the United States and its allies, Yemen's government has been a key ally in the fight against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based group linked to attacks such as the recent slaughter at French magazine Charlie Hebdo.