President accuses ‘Joint Meeting’ of treason

SANA’A, Sept. 11 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused the umbrella of opposition parties, the Joint Meeting, of “treason” in reacting to the three-month rebellion which was quelled in the northern province of Saada. In a speech, he made during his visit to the Shura Council on Saturday, President Saleh said the Joint Meeting members “except the Islah party” abused freedom of expression to commit “treason” by supporting rebel leader Hussein Badruddin al-Houthi. “I call it a treason and I caution them again that I will have to take constitutional measures against them,” Saleh warned as he congratulated the nation on the victory over insurgency. He said that the supporters of rebellion “are the same faces that we saw by the side of secessionists” during the summer war of 1994. “We know who buys their writings,” he said in reference to the Joint Meeting press who “wandering hypocritically in foreign embassies”. The legislators welcomed President Saleh with congratulations for the victory over rebellion in Saada. “This victory has concurred with the celebrations of the 26 September and 14 October revolutions, it affirms that all Yemeni people are steadfast in their loyalty to the revolution, unity and democracy,” said Shura Chairman Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Ghani in a few words of welcome to the President. AA/KM