As the country slips into further turmoil, dialogue between political parties and armed groups has failed to provide any results. The Houthis control large swathes of the north of Yemen, and Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi claims, from the southern port city of Aden, to be the legitimate president.

One of the groups involved in ongoing talks is the Nasserist Party, officially known as the Nasserist Unionist People’s Organization. Although part of the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), which is composed of seven parties including the Islah and Socialist parties, the Nasserist Party participates in the negotiations as its own entity.

In objection to conditions set by the Houthis, the Nasserist Party has twice withdrawn from negotiations and resumed participation. With Hadi’s escape to Aden on Feb. 21, the talks saw further setbacks. Recently, Hadi called for negotiations to be held in Riyadh but the Houthis and the GPC refused the call and insisted on holding the talks in Sana’a.

Hatim Abu Hatim, a leading figure in the Nasserist Party and member of its Central Committee, spoke to the Yemen Times about how the talks are progressing and why the party has refused to take part on more than one occasion.

Abu Hatim was born in 1946 in Nehm district of Sana’a governorate. He studied aeronautical engineering in Russia and returned to Yemen in 1970, joining the Yemeni air force in Hodeida and becoming a member of the Nasserist Party at the same time. Now a retired general, Abu Hatim was a member of the Military and Security Working Group of the National Dialogue Conference (NDC).

The Nasserist Party has participated in the negotiations since the beginning but it withdrew several times and then resumed participation. Why?

In the beginning, we participated in the negotiations like all other parties following the signature of the Peace and National Partnership Agreement on Sept. 21, 2014, after the Houthis gained control over Sana’a. But then we withdrew because of the Houthis’ refusal to sign the security annex. We resumed negotiations after they signed the annex.

The second time was when the Houthis mistreated the representative of the Nasserist Party, Abdullah Noman, during the negotiations because the Houthis insisted that the negotiations are based on the [Feb. 6] constitutional declaration. We didn’t resume negotiations this time until President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi left Sana’a to Aden, because it was a move forward in the negotiations. Also, Jamal Benomar pledged that negotiations would not be dependent on the constitutional declaration.

The dialogue will be held in a secure place agreed upon by all parties and identified by Benomar and President Hadi.

Now, the foundations of the dialogue have changed completely and negotiations must be held in an appropriate place. [The Parties] should be serious in their efforts to find a way to better share power. The focus may be that the Houthis’ withdraw the constitutional declaration and the steps taken after Sept. 21 and return the weapons looted from the state’s military camps and start a real partnership between all parties.



But will the Houthis agree to these conditions?

It’s not known yet, but Benomar said he is in negotiations.



The Houthis have accused the Nasserist Party of withdrawing from negotiations to obstruct the dialogue, what is your response?

This is not true because we withdraw due to real reasons and I have mentioned these reasons earlier. Even when we withdrew, we wished that all parties would succeed in reaching an agreement out of the current standoff. The Nasserist Party always supports and calls for dialogue and we were the first to call for dialogue in Sa’ada governorate during the six rounds of war that erupted between the Houthis and the military during the rule of the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Even when the negotiations reach a deadlock, we stop participation but continue calling for resolving the obstacles through dialogue and not violence. We aim to protect the country from plunging into civil war.



Did you support the call to hold talks in another governorate other than Sana’a?

Holding negotiations in Sana’a is fruitless because talks can’t occur in a place dominated by a certain party. So we support holding negotiations either in Aden or Taiz but the Houthis and the GPC are rejecting this option.



Hadi has recently called for the negotiations to be held in Riyadh. What is the Nasserist Party’s stance on this?

As a last resort, we support holding the negotiations outside Yemen because there will be an appropriate ground for the sessions to be resumed under international supervision and guarantees. However, we prefer that all parties agree on a neutral place where all parties can attend and participate freely without any obstructions.



But do you think Riyadh is an appropriate place?

No, because the Houthis will not accept this because of their stance with Saudi Arabia. If negotiations were to be held outside Yemen, the Nasserist Party believes that the Arab League is the best place to host the talks because it is a neutral place that is accepted by all parties.



Have you suggested this?

Yes, and there are many options provided by several parties participating in the negotiations.



You and the Islah Party are part of the Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs). Why do you participate in the dialogue individually?

Unfortunately the JMP is a federation that contains several parties but we participate individually. Even during the National Dialogue Conference we were represented individually and we deem this a failure on the part of the JMP. The parties [within the JMP] should consider this matter seriously in order to come up with a new vision to have a unified representative and say in national matters.  



Is it a matter of disagreement between members of the JMP?

No, it’s not. There is no disagreement within the JMP but I think the parties in the JMP are participating individually in order to put more pressure on those parties trying to obstruct the talks.



What are the most recent outcomes of the negotiations?

The last session [in which the party participated in] was held on Monday, March 2, but the dialogue is focused on resuming the rule of the state, evacuating the Houthi popular committees from the capital Sana’a and other cities, and enabling the state to perform its duties instead of establishing national or presidential councils.

Did the Nasserist Party send a representative to meet Hadi in Aden?

Yes. Abdullah Noman, the secretary general of the Nasserist Party, went to Aden and met with President Hadi along with several representatives of other parties.

Did they reach an agreement with Hadi?

They discussed a vision to establish a presidential council headed by President Hadi but he refused this proposal and insisted on being the legitimate president of the country and insisted on adherence to the Gulf Initiative. It’s due to a lack of trust [by Hadi for the Houthis] because President Hadi suffered unbearable oppression by the Houthis and has the right to refuse.



What are the expected scenarios in Yemen, particularly after the departure of General Mahmoud Al-Subaihi, the acting defense minister, to Lahj?

The departure of Al-Subaihi was another hit directed to the other concerned parties, including the Houthis and Saleh, because he will play an essential role in the operations room [referring to the military command Hadi established as supreme commander of the military] that was established recently by President Hadi in Aden, and he will create changes in the military.



If the Houthis refuse negotiations outside Sana’a, will you suspend your participation again?

As I said earlier, the Nasserist Party hopes that the negotiations will succeed and the political parties will find a way out of the current standoff because Yemen can’t afford more deterioration. If all parties don’t abide by negotiations, we will continue to struggle peacefully until we achieve the aim of protecting Yemen.