Hadi and the Houthis cut a deal?

Details are still sketchy, but in general it sounds like Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthis have reached some sort of deal whereby the Houthis will surrender their territorial gains in exchange for political reform/power sharing. This should be excellent news for everybody in Yemen except maybe Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has been thriving in the chaos created by the civil war, and ISIS, which also took advantage of the chaos by operating (or sponsoring operations) in Yemen for the first time. It also sounds like Khaled Bahah, Hadi’s new VP (now VP-PM) and someone who has some rapport with the Houthis, will be playing a big role in the political scene moving forward.

It could be that the Houthis were pushed into this settlement, not so much by the Saudi-led air campaign as by Sunday’s announcement by the commander of Yemen’s First Military District (along the Saudi border) that he and his ~15,000 troops were putting their support behind Hadi. Several military units have been declaring for Hadi in recent days, somewhat negating the military edge the Houthis gained when they formed their alliance of convenience with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Curiously, last week there were reports that Saleh was asking for safe passage out of Yemen for himself and his family from the other Gulf states, so it’s possible that he knew this was coming, or at least that his usefulness to the Houthis was starting to wane.

UPDATE: Yeah, not so much.