Saudi Arabia has called for a Yemen free of “militias supported by Iran”, on Tuesday, in its first statement since the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists killed ally former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The statement, published on the official SPA news agency, read: “The Saudi Arabian cabinet expresses the hope that the uprising of the Yemeni people against the terrorist Houthi militias supported by Iran will free Yemen of abuse, death threats and the appropriation of public and private property.”
The statement made no mention of Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years and was an ally of Saudi Arabia for decades before joining ranks with the Houthis in 2014.
Assination
Saleh was assassinated by the Iran-backed Houthis on Monday, just two days after severe disagreements caused him to break ranks with the terrorist and express willingness to negotiate with the Saudi-led coalition, who had been fighting the Saleh-Houthi camp for nearly three years.
The 75-year-old was fleeing Houthi-controlled Sanaa for the village of Sanhan but his four-vehicle convoy was stopped and he was shot dead, along with Arif Al-Zouka, secretary-general of the former president’s General People’s Congress party, and Al-Zouka’s deputy Yasir Al-Awadi.
A video of their bodies was then posted online.
Many, including Saudi writer Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg, believe that the Iranian Regime, which supports the Houthis and supplies them with weapons and training, ordered the assassination.
He notes that assassination is common among pro-Iranian groups like the Houthi militias, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Bashar Assad regime in Syria.
Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri, a Saudi political analyst and international relations scholar said that Saleh had made a mistake when he worked with the Houthis.
He said: “He thought he could share power with them. He should have known better. The Iranians never share power. They want everything for themselves or else they kill — which is what happened with Saleh.”
Reaction in Yemen
Many Yemeni politicians have called on the ordinary people to take Saleh’s assassination as a warning to reject the Iran-backed Houthis before the situation gets worse.
In a televised address on Monday, Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi urged the people to rise up and fight back against the Iran-backed terrorist group, saying that the Yemeni army, which surrounds Sanaa, would support all efforts to eradicate the Houthis.
While Rajeh Badi, a representative for the Hadi government, said: “[This is] yet another crime added to the bloody record of the Iran-backed Houthi militias. The gravity of the inhumane murder of Saleh should move all Yemenis to stand behind the legitimate government against the coup militias who have brought only chaos and destruction to Yemen, to the Yemeni people, and whose aim is to implement a sectarian Iranian agenda in the region.”
Source » ncr-iran