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The leader of the Houthi militants who control Sana, the capital, depicted his movement as eager to share power with its rivals and to reach out to the country’s traditional allies, including the United States and Saudi Arabia — even as the American Embassy prepared to shut down. Saleh Ali al-Sammad, the senior Houthi leader in Sana, made the remarks as a new round of United Nations-mediated talks among the Houthis and other major political parties to try to form a government is undergoing.

“It is now being negotiated, and most of the parties are ready to accept it,” Mr. Sammad said. “Insha Allah, does not want anything more than partnership, not control,” he said. “We felt that the opposition wanted to waste time so that any chaos could be blamed on us,” he said.

The seizure of the capital by the Houthis, who are believed to be financed by Iran, threatened to further destabilize Yemen, a significant American ally in the fight against Al Qaeda. The previous government, led by Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, supported American drone strikes against Al Qaeda.

Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said that because of the “uncertain security situation in Sana, we have suspended our embassy operation, and our embassy staff has been temporarily relocated out of Sana.” A State Department Twitter posting urged Americans to avoid traveling to Yemen and “those U.S. citizens currently living in Yemen to depart.” The closing made Yemen the third Middle Eastern country with no American embassy, after Syria and Libya.

By Premji