President holds press conference with Gulf editor-in-chiefs

SANA’A, July 03 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh received Tuesday editor-in-chiefs of Gulf papers, within the framework of the 4th meeting of the General Secretariat of the Gulf Press Union being held in Sana’a, and acquainted them with developments of the terror act that targeted a number of Yemenis and Spanish tourists in the historical and tourist city of Mareb. On this occasion, President replied to questions directed to him saying that, “Security apparatus had information four days ago about a possible terrorist attack but could not specify Where? or When? it would take place,” adding that “Accordingly, the country upped security alert at all governmental institutions and important locations.” He made it clear that the tourist group did not commit to safety directions of making a distance between a car and the other the thing that aggravated the situation when it was hit. According to preliminary information, the suicide bomber of this operation could be not Yemeni. He could be of an Arabic country. Saleh said. There is a strong cooperation between the Yemeni people and security system that would help to figure out the criminals behind this beast act which targets security and tourist of the country.” President added. Regarding the situation of Palestine, President Saleh called on all Palestinian factions to return to dialogue table according to Mecca deal of Fatah and Hamas to end the current split and form a national unity government or any possible solution. “We consider the attempt of separating Gaza from the West Bank as a service for the Israeli occupation,” he said, making it clear that he told the Palestinian President’s envoy, who is currently in an official visit to Yemen, that staying in the office should not be on account of the Palestinian blood. President Saleh also said that Yemen does not agree with “what so-called international forces” in Palestine. He said that he informed this stance to the President of the Palestinian Authority Abu Mazin through his envoy to Sana’a. “We do not know we call for international forces to interfere. As we know, such forces are to interfere between two countries not between two parts of the same country which is under occupation,” he said. Regarding accusations against Iran and Libya of backing sedition in Yemen, President Saleh said that if they involve or not in what happened in Yemen, I will not stop calling for unity of the Arab and Islamic nations.” As far as the new American strategy in Iraq is concerned, President said, “I could confirm today that this strategy was foiled. In spite of the good Yemeni ties with Americans, but I could say the US policy in Iraq is foiled because it did not achieve any thing but rather it makes the situation worse,”. He affirmed the importance of dialogue between all Iraqi factions to achieve stability and security. Concerning the Yemeni accession into the Gulf Cooperation Council, President Saleh said that Yemen has joined some Gulf institutions in fields of sports, health, education, social affairs and labor. “I heard from Gulf leaderships, on top of which is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, that Yemen should be qualified to get whole membership in the GCC,” he said. AH/AM Saba