Hassan Zayid, head of the supreme council of Yemen's main opposition grouping the Joint Meeting Parties, addresses a news conference in Sanaa October 29, 2009. Opposition parties on Thursday called on the government to announce a ceasefire in the fighting with Shi'ite rebels in north-western Yemen and to settle the conflict through dialogue. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah (YEMEN POLITICS CONFLICT)
29 Sep 2009 10:48:32 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Rebel leader says confict is over 'rights and justice'
* Denies Iranian backing
* Insurgency fans Saudi, U.S. concerns
SANAA, Sept 29 (Reuters) - A Yemeni Shi'ite rebel leader on Tuesday denied government claims that the sect's insurgents want to set up a Shi'ite state in north Yemen, describing the conflict as a fight for rights.
Several Arab countries are concerned over the influence of Shi'ite Muslim Iran, which they believe is trying to extend its influence by supporting the sect's minorities in the region.
The rebel leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, said some soldiers were cooperating with the rebels despite an "Operation Scorched Earth" launched by the government in early August to try to crush the insurgency by the rebels -- locally known as the Houthis after their leaders' clan.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, Yemen's neighbour and the world's leading oil exporter, fear this conflict and separatist tension in the south could play into the hands of al Qaeda, which has staged a comeback in Yemen with attacks on government and foreign targets over the past two years.
The government has portrayed the conflict as an effort by
extremists of the Shi'ite Zaydi sect to re-establish a cleric-ruled state, or "Imamate" in religious parlance, that fell in 1962 leading to the creation of the Yemeni republic.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh, himself a Zaydi, has avoided sectarian language, but government rhetoric elsewhere regularly attacks the rebel movement over their Zaydi beliefs.
"The authority's accusations about the Imamate are just a media war and misleading public opinion. We are not asking for positions, we are asking for rights and justice. The essence of the crisis is political," Houthi said on the rebels' website.
He denied that Iran was backing the rebels or providing arms, which he said some in the army had smuggled to them.
"We have been able to obtain a huge amount of equipment and weapons from (seized) army positions and it is not strange that there are some noble people of conscience in the army who have cooperated with us," Houthi said.
The Houthi rebels say they have been marginalised through a rise in Sunni fundamentalism on the back of Saleh's alliance with Saudi Arabia, whose puranitanical Wahhabi Islam regards Shi'ites as heretics.
Zaydis, who adhere to a different sect from the Shi'ism followed in leading Shi'ite power Iran, are thought to form around a third of Yemen's population of around 23 million.
Saleh said on Saturday the army was ready to fight Shi'ite rebels for years if necessary, calling on them to accept a ceasefire his government has proposed.
The international aid group Oxfam said last week Yemen could soon face a humanitarian crisis as a result of the escalation of fighting. Since disturbances first broke out in 2004 around 150,000 Yemenis have been displaced, aid groups say. (Reporting by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Inal Ersan and Mark Trevelyan)
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Yemen convicts rebels, Iran denies ship seizure
27 Oct 2009 15:11:21 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds southern protests in final two paragraphs)
SANAA, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A Yemeni court sentenced to death four men involved in a Shi'ite rebellion in its northern provinces bordering Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, while Iran denied a Yemeni claim to have seized a ship with arms for the rebels.
On Monday, Yemen said it had impounded a vessel carrying weapons destined for the rebels of the Zaidi Shi'ite sect and detained its Iranian crew at the Red Sea port of Medi, in Haja province bordering the area of conflict.
Iran's Arabic language television channel Al-Alam reported "informed Iranian sources" saying on Tuesday that no Iranian vessel delivering weapons to the rebels was stopped, and describing the story as a "media fabrication".
Yemen's embassy in Washington said security officials were questioning the ship's five Iranian crew members.
Sanaa has suggested an Iranian hand behind the rebels, often termed Houthis after their clan and religious leaders. Government officials have said Iranian media backs the rebels and President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Iranian religious figures provide funding.
Shi'ite power Iran and Shi'ite allies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Iraq have called on Sanaa to bring the fighting to an end through negotiations.
The Houthis first took up arms against Saleh's rule in 2004, citing political, economic and religious marginalisation by the Saudi- and Western-backed government.
But the conflict intensified in August when the army unleashed Operation Scorched Earth. Aid groups, who have been given limited access to the northern provinces, say up to 150,000 people have fled their homes since 2004.
The court on Tuesday delivered a death sentence to four of 16 men on trial. Eleven were jailed for up to 15 years, while one was released for already having served out his sentence.
It was the third trial of men who fought government troops for around a month last year at Bani Husheish, 30 km (19 miles) north of the capital Sanaa. Twelve others were sentenced to death in the earlier trials.
On Monday a court opened proceedings in absentia against Yahya al-Houthi, the brother of the rebels' leader, who is now based in Germany.
Veteran ruler Saleh also faces a separatist movement in the south and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia fears the instability will help al Qaeda launch more attacks there.
Witnesses said hundreds of people took to the streets in the southern provinces of Abyan, Lahej and Dalea to demand the release of protesters detained during clashes with security forces in recent months, as well as journalists held over their coverage.
They carried the flag of the former South Yemen, an independent state that united with North Yemen under Saleh's rule in 1990.
(Reporting by Mohamed Sudam; Writing by Andrew Hammond; Editing by Diana Abdallah)
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