![Mideast Yemen Mideast Yemen](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/yemen.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
The Shi’ite rebel group that controls the Yemeni capital dissolved parliament on Wednesday, bringing to an abrupt and potentially explosive end the political deadlock among rival factions.
The Houthi movement, which overran Sana’a in September, had been overseeing talks to form a new government since the group’s aggression prompted President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to resign last month. But with the lapse of a Wednesday deadline, the Houthis moved to act on their own terms.
In a televised statement, the rebels said they would form a five-member presidential council to lead the country during a transitional period of up to two years, proclaiming the developments marked “a new era that will take Yemen to safe shores,” according to the Associated Press.
But the move threatens to plunge the fractured nation deeper into sectarian turmoil. While the Houthis, members of a minority group of Shi‘ite Muslims from the north, have seen a recent surge in support, their power grab risks further alienating Sunni tribesman and empowering al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the powerful affiliate of al-Qaeda that controls swathes of the country’s south.
Yemen’s Tumultuous History in 12 Pictures
![Civil War In Yemen In 1962 Civil War In Yemen In 1962](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/gettyimages_162758049.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Apprehending Man An insurgency known as the “Aden Emergency” emerges after a grenade is thrown at a group of British military officers in a part of southern Yemen, which was still a British protectorate.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-8.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Yemen Aden British Troop Withdrawal Yemen Aden British Troop Withdrawal](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-5.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Ali Abdullah Saleh;Ali Salem Al Baidh Ali Abdullah Saleh;Ali Salem Al Baidh](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-93.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Fights Between North And South Yemen In Yemen On May 17, 1994. Fights Between North And South Yemen In Yemen On May 17, 1994.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-10.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![USS Cole Attack Suspect Arrested Al-Qaeda-linked militants bomb the U.S.S. Cole in the port of Aden, killing 17 sailors. A government crackdown on al-Qaeda cells that year would fuel a war between the government and Sunni extremists that would intensify after Saleh’s ouster.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-photo.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Protesters march during an anti-government demonstration in Radfan, a district in the southern Yemeni province of Lahej Protesters march during an anti-government demonstration in Radfan, a district in the southern Yemeni province of Lahej](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-12.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![APTOPIX Mideast Yemen Government forces fire on protesters, killing 52 and escalating violence.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-3.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Mideast Yemen A blast at the presidential compound badly burns President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh travels to Saudi Arabia for treatment, but ultimately returns to his post.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-4.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![APTOPIX Mideast Yemen After agreeing to an internationally brokered deal to transfer power to his vice president, Saleh resigns and hands power to Abd-Rabbu Mansur al-Hadi.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-11.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Houthis seize arms from captured Sanaa army zone in Yemen The Houthis, an insurgency comprising members of the Shi’ite Zaidi minority, take control of Sana’a after years of clashes with government forces in the north.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-2.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Clashes between Yemen's presidential guards and Shiite Houthi rebels Hadi submits his resignation as power-sharing negotiations with the Houthis crumble.](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/yemen-31.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
As TIME reported when tensions spilled over in Sana’a last month, the rise of the Houthi movement and the removal of a key ally in Hadi has posed a particularly acute problem for the U.S. in its fight against al-Qaeda:
For years, the U.S. has struck at AQAP in Yemen with drones and Special Ops, but it has also invested in the Yemeni government to help repel AQAP on the ground, pouring nearly $1 billion of economic, military and humanitarian aid into the country since 2011. That strategy has been hailed as a success by President Barack Obama and was used as a blueprint for the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). But as the government has focused on the Houthi rebellion, AQAP has regained a foothold in southern Yemen. U.S. officials now fear that a prolonged power vacuum in Sana‘a could give AQAP free rein to grow—and to pose new threats to the West.
The Houthis, though, are no friends of the Sunni al-Qaeda militants. The group, which is believed to be backed by the Shi‘ite leadership of Iran, has clashed with al-Qaeda in Yemen and criticized Hadi’s failure to quash Sunni extremism. The problem for the U.S.’s counterterrorism operations is that it also has no interest in an alliance with the U.S.; it has been equally critical of Hadi’s dependence on U.S. support, and it’s motto reads in part, “Death to Israel, Death to America.”
So far, Washington appears to be adapting to developments in Sana’a. A drone strike on Jan. 31 killed a top al-Qaeda cleric, and a senior U.S. official indicated the U.S. maintains intelligence ties with the Houthis. But whether the Houthis can maintain stability and prevent a prolonged sectarian conflict remains to be seen.
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Write to Noah Rayman at noah.rayman@time.com