President talking to The New York Times: Rebellion in Saada is

SANA'A, June 23 (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.