SANAA: President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi warned Tuesday of “civil war” in Sunni-majority Yemen and vowed to restore state authority as Shiite rebels in apparent near-total control of Sanaa hailed their “victory.”

Yemen “is facing a conspiracy” and “the danger of slipping into civil war,” Hadi said in a speech at the presidential palace, two days after Ansarullah rebels took all other key state institutions in the capital, overshadowing a UN-brokered peace deal.

In a televised speech, rebel leader Abdelmalek Al-Houthi hailed what he called the “victory” of his fighters.

“We congratulate our people on the victory of their popular revolution that has established a new era based on cooperation,” Houthi said.

Hadi had earlier evoked the specter of foreign plots aimed at torpedoing progress in Yemen.

“Internal and foreign forces (have) allied to... overthrow the Yemeni model” of power transition following an Arab Spring-inspired uprising, the president said.

Yemen was the only Arab Spring country where an uprising led to a political settlement by which Hadi replaced former autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Hundreds of rebels manned checkpoints on the airport road and other major thoroughfares on Tuesday while heavily armed patrols cruised the streets in four-wheel-drive vehicles, AFP correspondents reported.

Insurgents alongside small detachments of military police guarded public offices the rebels entered on Sunday, including the main government building, parliament, army headquarters and the central bank.

But Hadi insisted: “Sanaa will not fall.”

UN envoy Jamal Benomar, who mediated the accord aimed at ending deadly fighting between the rebels and Sunnis, said the rebels’ taking of key institutions virtually without resistance seemed to signify the “collapse” of the security forces in Sanaa.

“What has happened these past few days could lead to the collapse of the Yemeni state and the end of the political transition,” he told Al-Arabiya television late Monday.

As Benomar spoke, the peace accord appeared to be holding after a week of clashes that the government said killed at least 200 people.

The speed of the rebel advance reflected the fragility of Yemen’s regime three years after the uprising.

“You were shocked to learn that public and military institutions were handed over (to rebels), but be aware that the plot was already brewing,” Hadi told Yemenis Tuesday.

“There is no doubt that Saleh has facilitated Houthi expansion in and around the capital,” April Longley Alley, a specialist on Yemen with the International Crisis Group, told AFP.

“At the very least he has not discouraged his tribal and political supporters from supporting Houthi mobilization.”

However, “the extent of his involvement is unclear,” she told AFP.

Under Sunday’s deal, Hadi had three days to bring a rebel representative into government as an adviser and to name a neutral replacement for prime minister Mohamed Basindawa.