REBELLION MORE DANGEROUS FOR YEMEN THAN AL QAEDA: MUSTAFA

SANA'A, Jan. 20 (Saba) – Al Qaeda can't pose a threat to Yemen and its regime but the Houthi rebellion can because the insurgency expands to a whole province in the country, chairman of the board of directors of Yemen News Agency has said.

There is in Iran who wants to shove Yemen into a sectarian conflict under pretexts that Yemen kills Shiites, Saba editor-in-chief Nasr Taha Mustafa said in an interview with al Hiwar Channel.
The Houthi people in northern Yemen are not Shiites…. they are rebels fighting the national army and their schemes are even more dangerous, he said.

Dialog in Yemen is open and should be under the roof of unity but separation and subversion bids are unacceptable and can never be on the dialog's agenda, he said.

He also noted that dialog was sometimes secretly held with some leaders, saying we can realize this after many problems that dominated in 2006 and 2007 were tackled.

The insurgency in the far north is a political movement with its own ideology aiming at restoring imamate rule.

The Houthi rebels never care about development in Saada province, however, they are fighting the army for ideological and racial goals.
In the beginning, we thought it was just a rebellion but we found out later it was a very complicated matter with the rebels very stubborn.

In 2004, the first offensive against the rebels was launched and their leader was killed. After it ended, the Houthi fighters were absorbed and compensated and development process in the war-ravaged areas in Saada started.

But in 2005 and 2006, the rebels continued to break law, taking military posts, fighting the troops and attacking the people's properties.

Then Qatar mediated and Doha-brokered ceasefire was produced. The deal was fair and the government rushed to prove a good-will towards peace, he said, adding the Houthi rebels were who violated it, in particular the last three provisions in it.
'The Houthi rebels even fired at the Qatari peace mission in the country.'

The conditions the government is now offering for a ceasefire in Saada were the same terms included in the Qatar-brokered ceasefire, he said.

They included those who were members in the ruling party and the war against them started after they declared an armed rebellion against authorities.

The government exerted major efforts to rehabilitate the Houthi fighters, holding intellectual talks with them through clerics and they were released from jails. But after their release they regrouped and waged new wars against authorities.

Now an end to the Houthi problem can't come except through al Houthi themselves….when they start implementing the terms announced by the government for a ceasefire.

Apart from the rebellion, Mustafa said that any country in the world must see corruption, specifically those in the third world.
In Yemen, despite corruption and scarce economic resources, major strides have been made towards development, he said.

'Successive governments in Yemen must be blamed for deteriorating economy under reliance only on gradually declining oil revenues.'
The governments of Yemen should have sought other resources and develop non-oil sectors, he said.

The economic problems in Yemen are not totally tied to corruption, however, inability to attract foreign investments and inefficient management besides scarce national resources and scarce foreign aid worsen the economic situation and help extremist groups emerge.

Poverty and unemployment high rates, 25 percent, are major factors for recruiting young people and in the present time there is not a country which can stand on its own feet with taking advantages from others' interests.

Mustafa also said that the southern subversive movement has become an umbrella for al Qaeda operations in the south and the movement is along with the Saada-based rebellion in the far north preparing the atmosphere for terrorists to revive.

This can be proved through the declaration of al Qaeda wings in Yemen and Saudi Arabia when they merged early last year coinciding with increasing subversion by separatists and the rebels.
FR