UPDATE - Yemeni rebel minister defects to Saudi Arabia

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT, DETAILS

By Shukri Hussein

ADEN, Yemen (AA) - The information minister in Yemen’s rebel government has defected to neighboring Saudi Arabia, according to a government official on Sunday.

Abdul Salam Gaber had fled Sanaa and flown to Riyadh, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Gaber is the most senior rebel official to defect since the Yemeni conflict broke out in 2014 when the Shia Houthi group overran much of Yemen, including capital Sanaa.

“The putschists are in their last breath,” Gaber told a press conference held in Riyadh on Sunday.

“The desperate Houthi militias are trying to apply a project and a foreign scheme unfamiliar with Yemen and its people,” he said, asserting that the rebel group “has committed horrible crimes”.

The former minister lauded intervention by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, saying the situation could have been worse without the coalition’s military action.

“Yemen’s future should be decided by its honorable sons,” he said.

According to Saudi media, Gaber was “forced” to work with Houthis.

Meanwhile, Al-Hadath Saudi T.V. broadcast a video showing Gaber thrown at his face with a shoe while talking, without giving further details.

There was no comment from the rebel group on the defection, but the pro-Houthi Al Masirah television said Deifullah al-Shami was appointed as an information minister in the Houthi government.

In 2015, Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched a devastating air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.