Yemen ex-President offers talks to Saudi-led coalition

Former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday said that he is open for talks with the Saudi-led coalition that his forces have been fighting for years.

Saleh said on TV that he would be ready to "turn the page" if the coalition lifted a blockade on northern Yemen and halted its attacks, the BBC reported.

The offer came as clashes worsened between Saleh's forces and their former allies, the Houthis. The two groups had been fighting the government of current President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi together for nearly three years.

Fighting began earlier this week when Saleh's supporters accused Houthi rebels of breaking into the city's main mosque complex. There were reports of more fighting on the streets of the capital.

Explosions and gunfire were concentrated in the southern suburbs of the city, where Saleh's relatives live.

"I call on our brothers in neighbouring countries... to stop their aggression and lift the blockade... and we will turn the page," Saleh said in the TV address.

He condemned the Houthis -- who are backed by Iran but have been his allies against the internationally-recognised government for years -- for a "blatant assault" on members of his party, the General People's Congress.

More than 8,670 people have been killed and 49,960 injured since a Saudi-led coalition backing Hadi intervened in the conflict in 2015, according to the UN.

--IANS

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