SANAA, Nov. 9 -- Yemen's new government will be sworn in Sunday despite the opposition from the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) and the Shiite Houthi group, which has cast shadow on efforts to end the country's prolonged political crisis.
Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi announced the lineup of the 36-member cabinet led by Prime Minister Khaled Bahah on Friday night according to a UN-brokered deal. However, the ruling GPC party, led by ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and the Shiite Houthi group, which overran the capital city of Sanaa in September, rejected the power-sharing solution one day later.
"Because of the lack of consultation with the General People's Congress on the formation of the government and because that they (Hadi and Bahah) appointed members from the GPC in the new government without our knowledge, we decide not to participate in this government and we call our appointed ministers to quit their posts," the GPC said in a statement on its official website.
Meanwhile, the Houthi group also rejected the new government's lineup in an official statement, saying it is disappointing "for failing to meet the agreed terms of the UN-brokered peace and power-sharing deal signed in September," while accusing some of the ministers of corruption.
The Houthi group overran Sanaa after it signed a ceasefire deal with the government on Sept. 21 that put an end to deadly conflicts. The former premier resigned several hours before the deal was inked.
Bahah is the second premier named by Hadi in a week after the Shiite Houthi group rejected Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, director of the presidential office, as prime minister.
The announcements of Saleh and Houthi group came one day after the UN Security Council issued sanctions against Saleh and two Houthi leaders for spoiling the Yemeni political transition.
Saleh rejected the sanctions that include a global travel ban and asset freezing, saying he was willing to give up the immunity he was granted when he stepped down in February 2012 following mass protests.
On Friday, thousands of protesters took to the street in Sanaa against the U.S. intervention in Yemen's internal affairs. The GPC accused the U.S. ambassador to Yemen of delivering a message through a mediator that Saleh has to leave the country by Friday or face international sanctions.But the White House on Thursday denied such an accusation.
Saleh has been under fire from Washington for "destabilizing Yemen," and the U.S. asked the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Saleh last week.
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