Sunday to discuss Hadi’s resignation offer, which needs to be approved by lawmakers to take effect.
After heavy fighting between government forces and the Huthis this week that killed at least 35 people, the UN Security Council and Yemen’s Gulf neighbours had all voiced support for Hadi’s continued rule.
The European Union warned the events put the “remarkable promises of Yemen transition in jeopardy,” referring to the political process that followed a year of bloody protests that drove former autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office.
France condemned the “forced resignations” of Hadi and Bahah, demanding an “immediate” pullout of militiamen from the capital, according to foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.
The situation escalated on January 17 when the militiamen seized Hadi’s chief of staff, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, in an apparent bid to extract changes to a draft constitution they oppose because it would divide Yemen into six federal regions.
The Huthis still hold Mubarak and maintain a tight grip on the capital despite a deal struck late on Wednesday to end what authorities called a coup attempt.
The Huthis and their allies “must now take clear public responsibility for their actions,” said EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, urging them to release Mubarak and reject violence.
In return for concessions over the disputed draft constitution, the Huthis had pledged to vacate the presidential palace, free Mubarak, withdraw from areas surrounding the residences of Hadi and Bahah, and abandon checkpoints across the capital.
The fall of Hadi’s Western-backed government would raise fears of complete chaos engulfing Yemen, strategically located next to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf.
In the south, separatists on Saturday seized police checkpoints in Ataq, the provincial capital of Shabwa, as other regions declared they would defy Sanaa following the resignation of Hadi, who is a southerner.
Gunmen in Ataq raised the flags of the formerly independent South Yemen on the seized checkpoints.
Popular Committees that fought in the past alongside the army against al-Qaeda also deployed gunmen in Aden and raised separatist flags on checkpoints in the city, said witnesses.
Yemen has been riven by instability since the Arab Spring-inspired uprising that forced Saleh from power in 2012.