2nd LD: Yemeni prime minister presents resignation to president

Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah presented resignation to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Thursday night, government spokesman Rajeh Badi told Xinhua, one day after the government and Shiite Houthi group signed a peace deal to end a three-day political crisis.

"The prime minister and his government will not withdraw their decision under any circumstance," Badi said, expressing the apology on behalf of Bahah to the Yemeni people.

Meanwhile, Xinhua obtained a copy of Bahah's resignation letter, in which he said "despite the short duration we worked in, the matters in Yemen seem to move in a different direction, therefore we choose to distance ourselves from such destructive political chaos which is not based on either law or logical systems."

"We, as a government of professionals, tried as much as we can to serve the Yemeni people and this country to our best ability, and when we realized that this cannot happen, we decided today to present our resignation to the leadership of Yemen and to the Yemeni people," Bahah said.

Bahah, born in 1965 in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramout, was named as the premier on Oct. 13, 2014. He served as oil minister from March to June in 2014. He was replaced due to protests triggered by shortage of fuel and electricity, and was later named as envoy to the UN.

The government signed on Wednesday a peace deal with the Houthi group which seized the presidential palace during clashes with presidential guards since Monday. Endit