Date: Tue Nov 25 09:21:38 2014
Yemen ex-leader denies aiding Shiite militias, blames president
Yemeni ex-leader says he's 'not against the Houthis', urges their
'incorporation in power', but accuses president of allowing Sanaa to fall to
curb Islah
<http://www.middleeasteye.net/users/mee-and-agencies> MEE and agencies's
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<http://www.middleeasteye.net/users/mee-and-agencies> MEE and agencies
Tuesday 25 November 2014 09:15 GMT
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<http://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/insideyemen> InsideYemen
Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday denied helping Shiite
Houthi militias overrun Sanaa, accusing his successor of doing so to curb
the growing influence of the Sunni Islah party, Yemen's Muslim Brotherhood.
Saleh, who has been slapped with UN Security Council and US sanctions for
obstructing peace, said in a television interview he had played "no role" in
supporting the unopposed seizure of the capital by the Houthis, known also
as Ansarullah, in September.
"The president (Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi) is the one who brought Ansarullah into
Sanaa to fight the Muslim Brotherhood," Saleh told Egyptian channel CBC
Extra.
"Government institutions were handed over to Houthis," he said, arguing that
Hadi wanted to curb the influence of the Islah party.
The Houthis had expanded their control out of their northern stronghold
before seizing the capital. Since then, they have stretched to coastal areas
and regions south of the Sanaa, where they met resistance from Sunni tribes
and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Saleh said however that he was not willing to fight the Houthis, whose
rebellion he fought for over a decade as president before he stepped down in
February 2012 following nationwide protests.
"I am not against the Houthis because they have become a political force in
the country," he said, urging their "incorporation in power."
The US Treasury blacklisted Saleh and two Huthi chiefs earlier this month,
shortly after the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on the three men for
allegedly threatening the UN-backed political transition in the impoverished
country.
Saleh said the sanctions were the result of an "official request" by Hadi
and called for them to be lifted.
He also said he had refused a "US and Arab offer" to leave Yemen for up to
six months, saying it could mean "no return" for him.
Saleh described the Arab Spring uprisings as a "tool" aimed at weakening
Arab economies and armies.
"The absence of democracy in some [Arab] countries has caused frustration
among the youth," Saleh said. "But the revolutions have been merely a tool
for weakening armies, spreading chaos and destroying economies."
Saleh described last year's military ouster of president Mohamed Morsi - the
Islamist leader who won Egypt's first democratic presidential polls in 2012
- as an "abortion of a Zionist scheme" which he said aimed at pushing
Islamists to power, with the support of the US.
"The Egyptian people's revolt against the Brotherhood was a victory for the
whole region," Saleh said in reference to massive protests that broke out
against Morsi's single-year rule.
Saleh said that while Egypt has been "lucky to receive generous support" by
the Gulf following Morsi's ouster, Yemen has gone "back to square one" amid
an ongoing stalemate between the central government and the Houthis.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_article_p
age/public/main-images/000_Nic6385166.jpg?itok=kWthUoI1
Gunmen loyal to Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh (on the poster)
take part in a rally to protest threatened UN sanctions against him in Sanaa
on 7 November, 2014 (AFP)
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