Your trusted source

Yemen's dominant Shiite Muslim Houthi militia seized the offices of a political conciliation body late Wednesday, hours after the president refused U.N.-brokered talks with their powerful movement unless they withdrew from Sanaa, Reuters reported.

Yemen, a neighbor of top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and global security worry because of its strong Al-Qaeda presence, is caught in a stand-off between Western-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Houthi clan, now the country's de facto rulers who are supported by Iran.

Last month, Hadi fled Houthi house arrest to the southern port city of Aden and re-established his presidency there. Soon afterwards, the United Nations announced it would mediate in a dialogue between the two sides, warning that Yemen was sliding towards civil war.

Around 15 armed Houthis forced their way into and searched the offices of the National Dialogue's secretariat in Sanaa late Wednesday, the general secretariat said in a statement.

With these actions, the Houthis, who left armed guards in front of the building, were hampering a potential political settlement, the secretariat said.

"As everyone knows, the general secretariat is a technical apparatus which is neutral ... It cannot work under the authority and control of any political party," it said in the statement.