SAUDI ARABIA HAILS SALEH TALKS FEELER
The uprising of Sanaa is an awakening from a nightmare of drifting behind misleading sectarian calls, which are against the interests of the Yemeni people. Dr Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs
aden — Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he was ready for a “new page” in relations with the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen if it stopped attacks on his country.
The Saudi-led coalition welcomed Saleh’s change of stance.
In a statement carried by the Saudi-owned Al Hadath channel, the coalition said it was “confident of the will of the leaders and sons” of Saleh’s GPC party to return to Arab fold.
Saleh’s call came as his supporters battled Houthis for a fourth day in the capital Sanaa while both sides traded blame for a widening rift between allies that could affect the course of the civil war.
Together they have fought the Saudi-led coalition which intervened in Yemen in 2015 aiming to restore the internationally recognised government of President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi after the Houthis forced him into exile.
The clashes between Saleh’s supporters and the Houthis underscore the complex situation in Yemen. “I call upon the brothers in neighbouring states and the alliance to stop their aggression, lift the siege, open the airports and allow food aid and the saving of the wounded and we will turn a new page by virtue of our neighbourliness,” Saleh said in a TV speech. “We will deal with them in a positive way and what happened to Yemen is enough,” he added.
Saleh, who was forced to step down by a 2011 mass uprising, said Yemen’s parliament, which is dominated by his General People’s Congress (GPC) party, was the only legitimate power in the country and was ready for talks with the coalition.
The coalition accuses non-Arab Iran of trying to expand its influence into Arab countries, including Yemen, which shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, by aligning themselves with the Houthis and Saleh.
The Houthis accused Saleh of betrayal, and vowed to keep up the fight against the Saudi-led coalition. —
sanaa — Violent clashes between rival factions in Yemen’s rebel-held capital continued on Saturday for the fourth straight day as forces loyal to a former president and Iran-backed Houthis faced off in the streets of Sanaa, signalling disintegration in the rebel alliance at war with a Saudi-led coalition for nearly three years.
Fighting since Wednesday intensified, according to accounts of local residents who said that loud explosions were heard overnight across the city and into Saturday morning. Mediation efforts by tribal elders and officials over the past few days have come to no avail.
“It’s been like a street war,” they said, adding that ambulances have been ferrying the wounded to hospitals.
There has been no official word on casualties but the International Committee of the Red Cross said that dozens were killed and hundreds were wounded in the fighting.
Over the course of the day, both sides claimed control of sensitive areas in the capital, including the airport but nothing was confirmed.
Amid the escalating violence, expresident Ali Abdullah Saleh announced in a televised interview on Saturday with Yemen Al Youm that he is open to dialogue and is willing to open a “new page” to deal with the Saudi coalition after ending its blockade and ceasing fire.
The US-backed Saudi-led coalition has been fighting to defeat the Iran-backed Houthis along with Saleh’s forces in Yemen since March 2015. The coalition had also imposed a blockade on the country, allowing occasional humanitarian access, with the aim of reinstating the internationally recognised government of Saleh’s successor, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
The United Nations urged the coalition in a statement on Saturday to “fully lift” the blockade on Yemen’s red sea ports saying that partial lifting only “slows the collapse toward a massive humanitarian tragedy costing millions of lives.”
Saleh blamed Houthis for laying siege to the homes of officials in the General People’s Congress, which he leads, and “storming” a mosque named after him. —