President talking to The New York Times: Rebellion in Saada is continuity of Imamate attempts to return to racist governing

SANA’A, June 22 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh affirmed on Sunday in an interview with The New York Times that rebellion and destruction turmoil ignited by the terrorist and criminal elements in some regions in Saada governorate is an extension for the failing attempts of the Imamate dreams to bring the country back to the dark ruling regime after the Yemeni people brought that racist ruling to an end on September 26, 1962. He affirmed that the Yemeni people foiled all attempts of the Imamate regime until they achieved victory in 1970 and attempts ended after suspending foreign support for the Imamate elements. “Though those Imamate elements disappeared, they exploited the democratic approach and the political pluralism after achieving the Yemeni unification on May 22, 1990 and started to move under different names and logos through announced political parties. Then they started to appear in Saada and started to wave logos of “Death for America” which are taken from some anti-America Iranians who supported them in an unofficial way”, he said. Saleh noted that those elements received support from some extremist bodies outside Yemen and from those who want to revenge on Yemen at the expense of the Yemeni blood, pointing out that the Imamate regime is a racist regime and is based on claiming power with a divine right. He emphasized that what is happening in some districts of Saada has no relation with any sect but is ignited by elements exploiting passions of people and are trying to gather supporters under allegations that the country is fighting the Zaidi Dectrine which are completely void and null. President also talked about Yemen efforts in fighting terrorism and successes achieved in this regard, affirming that Yemen is determined to encounter terrorism intolerably. Saleh noted that Yemen partnership with the international efforts in fighting terrorism, including the USA, is focused on security and information cooperation in a way that serves the common interest. “We have two ways in fighting terrorism: one is by welcoming those who want to give up terrorism and become good citizens and the other is tracking them down strictly. He added that the US is not satisfied with dialogue with al-Qaeda and it believes that it is wrong to talk and rehabilitate those elements at the time in which we are negotiating with the US to hand over the Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo Bay, showing resentment towards the US condition to hand over detainees that the Yemeni security agency does not mistreat them while the world is witnessing what is going on in Guantanamo Bay. As far as the US demand to receive some terror elements and Yemen stance in this regard are concerned, President Saleh said that the US is demanding to receive Jabir al-Banna and Jamal al-Badawi but the Yemeni legislation forbids handing over any Yemeni citizen to another country, and they are now in custody. Regarding sheikh Abdul-Majid al-Zandani, he said that the US inserted his name in the terrorists list because it accuses him of collecting donations for the Palestinian movement of Hamas, though it supported him and other scholars and Arab countries against the Soviet Union, while we do not consider it as a terrorist movement. On the contrary, Hamas is an Islamic struggling movement which struggles for independence and resists the Israeli occupation. AM/AM Saba