Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have held rare
talks with Yemen's Al-Islah party, ignoring its close links with the
Muslim Brotherhood as they review strategy against rebels.
Both countries have outlawed the Brotherhood as a terrorist group and the UAE even sponsored rival groups in Yemen.
But
after the failure of an attempted uprising early this month against the
rebels by their erstwhile ally former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, the
two governments have been forced to review strategy in their nearly
three-year-old military intervention.
Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman and his Abu Dhabi counterpart Mohammed bin Zayed
received the party's chairman and secretary general in Riyadh late on
Wednesday, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
It
was an opportunity to “review the situation in Yemen and efforts to
restore security and stability for the Yemeni people,” SPA said.
Al-Islah
was long a major military as well as a political force in Yemen but its
forces pulled back from the capital and the rest of the north as the
rebels took control and are now largely confined to Marib province, east
of Sanaa.
The movement is nominally part of the alliance
supporting President Abderabbo Mansour Hadi but so far it has played
only a minor part in the actual fighting against the Huthi rebels.
Saudi
Arabia has not cut off all contact with parties linked to the
Brotherhood, but the UAE had previously pursued a policy of “zero
tolerance” toward Al-Islah, considered close to arch rival Qatar.
Saudi
Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut off all diplomatic and economic
ties with Qatar in June, mainly over Doha's links to the Brotherhood.
During the past year, the UAE has trained elite Yemeni forces to fight both the Huthis and Al Qaeda.
