Authorities in southern Yemen re-opened Aden's air and sea ports on Thursday, officials said, after President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi accepted some demands from the dominant Houthi group in a move expected to ease days of tension in the capital.
Security authorities on Wednesday closed air, sea and land crossings into Yemen's southern port city of Aden after fighting in Sanaa that threw the Arab state deeper into turmoil.
They said the Aden security committee had said it was canceling a decision to close the airport, sea port and land crossings in response to the agreement, which provided for all state institutions to return to work.
Airport staff said one flight from Cairo and one from the Yemeni city of Taiz had landed at Aden airport since they resumed work.
Officials at the Aden port also said they had resumed work.
Hadi's office issued a statement after meetings with senior advisers, including a representative of the Houthi group, agreeing to introduce amendments and changes to a draft of the new constitution and to appoint Houthi representatives to various state bodies.
The agreement also called on the government and all state bodies to resume work from Thursday.
Earlier, President Hadi offered to scrap a proposed constitutional change that the Houthi fighters opposed.
The Shi'ite Muslim rebels, in turn, have agreed to withdraw from their positions and release a top official, kidnapped Saturday. They had replaced the guards outside the presidential palace Wednesday, further pressing their control of the capital.
The concessions came after three days of violence in Sanaa. They appeared to ease a standoff that raised alarms across the Gulf region, at the United Nations and in Washington, which relies on the current Yemeni government in its battle against Yemen-based al-Qaida militants.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said monitoring the situation in Yemen is a priority for the United States.
"The Houthis had obviously what you can only call violent objections to the refusal of the Hadi government to accept all of their demands with respect to the way forward, and particularly the peace and partnership agreement, and its implementation," he said.
"The Houthis have declared that Hadi is still the president," Kerry said. "At this moment, we're waiting to have another conversation with President Hadi to make a determination from his point of view of exactly where things stand."
A presidential statement also offered a broader vision of unity for deeply fractured Yemen. It noted that Houthis and members of the southern separatist Hirak movement have a right to be appointed to all state institutions.
Before the agreement was announced, anti-Houthi protesters had held rallies in Taiz. And authorities in the southern city of Aden closed the airport there Wednesday, saying the move was to protest Houthi attacks on Hadi's power and the country's sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Gulf Arab foreign ministers Wednesday condemned what they called a "coup d'etat."
Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), who support Hadi and oppose Iranian influence in the region, denounced what they called terrorist acts by the Houthis and their allies. They demanded that state bodies be returned to government control and that Hadi's chief of staff, detained by the Houthis last week, be released.
The council — composed of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain — also expressed support for the "constitutionally legitimate authority" of Hadi, and rejected "all measures aimed at imposing change by force."
The ministers, who met in an emergency session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, warned that Gulf states "would take all measures necessary to protect their security, stability and vital interests in Yemen."
Rebel leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi said in a televised speech late Tuesday that his faction wanted an end to what he called "corruption and totalitarianism" in Yemen. He stopped short of calling for the government's ouster.
Arab media earlier had reported the Houthis were demanding 50 percent of key ministerial positions as part of an earlier power-sharing agreement. TV said the Houthis also insisted that 1,000 of their fighters be incorporated into the army and 1,000 more be incorporated into the police.
The United Nations Security Council and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had called for a cease-fire and the restoration of the government's full authority.
Houthi forces, calling for greater rights for Yemen's Shi'ite minority, overran Sana'a in September.