DUBAI - Yemeni Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karman was suspended from an Islamist party allied with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after she accused the Saudi-led coalition that backs him in the country's civil war of acting as occupiers.

Karman won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in Arab Spring protests that ousted authoritarian President Ali Abdullah. More recently she has ramped up public criticism of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of backing a campaign to divide Yemen by supporting southern separatists against the internationally recognized government.Speaking at the Warwick Economics Summit in London over the weekend, Karman said Saudi Arabia and the UAE were driven by a "reckless adventurism" when they intervened in Yemen in 2015 after Iran-aligned Houthi forces drove Hadi into exile.In an earlier Twitter message, she wrote: "Saudi Arabia and UAE took advantage of the (Houthi) militia coup in Sanaa to launch a very ugly occupation and an uglier influence in Yemen."The Islah party, regarded as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is viewed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a terrorist organization, tried to distance itself from Karman and order her suspended from its ranks. </s> (This version of the Feb. 4 story corrects venue of gathering to Warwick University in paragraph three)

Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman of Yemen looks on during a news conference as part of the Nobel Women's Initiative to gather a first-hand account of the ongoing violence against women land defenders, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Cabrera

DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemeni Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karman was suspended from an Islamist party allied with President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after she accused the Saudi-led coalition that backs him in the country’s civil war of acting as occupiers.

Karman won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her role in Arab Spring protests that ousted authoritarian President Ali Abdullah. More recently she has ramped up public criticism of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, accusing them of backing a campaign to divide Yemen by supporting southern separatists against the internationally recognized government.

Speaking at the Warwick Economics Summit at Britain’s Warwick University over the weekend, Karman said Saudi Arabia and the UAE were driven by a “reckless adventurism” when they intervened in Yemen in 2015 after Iran-aligned Houthi forces drove Hadi into exile.

In an earlier Twitter message, she wrote: “Saudi Arabia and UAE took advantage of the (Houthi) militia coup in Sanaa to launch a very ugly occupation and an uglier influence in Yemen.”

The Islah party, regarded as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is viewed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a terrorist organization, tried to distance itself from Karman and order her suspended from its ranks.

“Tawakkol Karman’s statements do not represent the Islah party and its policies, and are not in line with the party’s positions,” a statement posted on Islah’s website said.

“Therefore, the general secretary has decided to freeze her membership according to the party’s status.”

Karman, who left Yemen after Houthi militia seized the capital Sanaa in a series of military advances that began in late 2014, responded on her Twitter account by describing Islah leaders as “prisoners and slaves” of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

Tensions between Islah and southern separatists have been rising since Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, announced a boycott of Qatar in June last year over allegations that Doha backs Islamist militants. Qatar denies the charges.

Islah, eager to ease the worries of Gulf Arab states about its Islamist leanings, has sought to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood denies accusations from conservative Arab governments of involvement in terrorism, saying it seeks democracy by peaceful means only.

The southern separatists want to restore the independent state of South Yemen, which merged with North Yemen in 1990. They have fought the Houthis alongside Hadi’s forces, but rose up last week and seized control of the southern port of Aden after Hadi refused to sack his prime minister, whom the separatists accuse of mismanagement and corruption. </s> SANAA, YEMEN: The political party of Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed in December by his erstwhile Huthi rebel allies, on Sunday named his replacement.

The General People's Congress, a key player in Yemeni politics for decades, elected former deputy premier Sadiq Amin Aburas by consensus at a meeting of its general committee, it said in a statement.

It made no mention of the Huthis, but said it would continue to "reject and resist aggression and siege" against Yemen, a reference to a military campaign being waged since 2015 by a Saudi-led coalition.

Aburas, 65, is seen as having been close to Saleh, the long-time Yemeni strongman killed by Huthi gunmen on December 4 after their alliance collapsed.

Saleh held power in the Arabian Peninsula country for three decades before being ousted in 2012 following mass protests.

He later allied with his former enemies, the Iran-backed Huthis, to seize the capital in 2014 from the internationally backed government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

That prompted Iran's regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia to lead an intervention against the alliance the following year.

In late 2017, the Saleh-Huthi alliance fell apart after Saleh offered to "turn the page" with Riyadh in return for a ceasefire and the lifting of a crippling blockade.

That sparked fighting in the streets of Sanaa, and Saleh was gunned down as he tried to flee.

The GPC said Aburas would lead it until its next general assembly, a date for which could not yet be set "because of the current difficulties".

The GPC said it was still open to dialogue and "national reconciliation".

More than 8,750 people have been killed since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen, according to the World Health Organization.

The country also faces what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
2011 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Tawakkol Karman is ordered suspended from the Islah party's ranks after she likened the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen to "reckless adventurism" and "ugly occupation".