Yemen government demands rebels release slain Saleh’s body

Yemen’s government will demand the release of the body of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, killed by rebels last year, at upcoming peace talks in Geneva, a minister said Wednesday.

Saleh, for decades the most powerful politician in troubled Yemen, had sided with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels for three years before shifting alliances in the country’s armed conflict. He was killed by the rebels in December.

President Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi will demand the rebels release Saleh’s body via a government delegation at the U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva, which open Thursday, according to Yemen’s information minister.

“This is an important message that all within [Saleh’s] General People’s Congress should take into consideration to turn the page of the past and move forward towards the future to restore the state,” Moammer al-Eryan tweeted.

Saleh founded the General People’s Congress in the 1980s and while his death has significantly weakened the group, it is still a useful ally for Yemeni parties seeking broader national appeal.

Eryan said the government will also demand the release of Saleh’s sons, believed to be detained by the rebels.

Mass protests forced Saleh to leave power in 2012, but he remained a key player in the chaos that followed.

For decades sworn enemies, the Houthis and Saleh formed an uneasy alliance in 2014 to jointly drive the Hadi government from Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

In 2017, Saleh made overtures to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a pro-government regional alliance, sparking violent clashes between his supporters and the rebels which culminated in his death.

The Houthis now control Sanaa unchallenged.

According to one of his relatives, Saleh was buried in his village outside of Sanaa in a funeral attended by 20 people under the strict watch of the Houthis.

Supported by the Arab coalition, the Hadi government has battled the Houthis for more than three years in what is widely seen as a proxy war between Riyadh and Tehran.

Both the government and rebels have said they do not expect any breakthrough at the Geneva talks this month, the first since U.N.-backed negotiations broke down in 2016.

Yemen’s foreign minister has ruled out face-to-face meetings between the delegations.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemeni conflict, 2,200 of them children.