Yemen Support for Hezbollah
Some Arab regimes including Saudi Arabia and most of the GCC countries criticized Hezbollah for attacking Israel without the authorization of the Lebanese government. On the other hand, the Yemeni regime backed Syria’s position and called for invocation of the collective defense treaty, ie- all out war, and financial support of the resistance:
From the New York Times:
With the battle between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah raging, key Arab governments have taken the rare step of blaming Hezbollah, underscoring in part their growing fear of influence by the group’s main sponsor, Iran.Saudi Arabia, with Jordan, Egypt and several Persian Gulf states, chastised Hezbollah for “unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts” at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in Cairo on Saturday.
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, “These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them.” Prince Faisal spoke at the closed-door meeting but his words were reported to journalists by other delegates.
The meeting ended with participants asserting that the Middle East peace process had failed and requesting help from the United Nations Security Council.
It is nearly unheard of for Arab officials to chastise an Arab group engaged in conflict with Israel, especially as images of destruction by Israeli warplanes are beamed into Arab living rooms. Normally under such circumstances, Arabs are not blamed, and condemnations of Israel are routine….
Hanna Seniora, a Palestinian analyst with the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, lauded the Arab opposition to Hezbollah on Sunday. “For the first time ever, open criticism was heard from countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan against the unilateral actions carried out by radical organizations, especially Hezbollah of Lebanon,” wrote Mr. Seniora, who favors coexistence with Israel and opposes radical Islam. “It became clear and beyond doubt that the most important Arab countries did not allow their emotions to rule their judgment.”
“Who’s benefiting?” asked a senior official of one of the Arab countries critical of Hezbollah who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “Definitely not the Arabs or the peace process. But definitely the Iranians are.” There may be no material proof of Iran’s involvement in the conflict, the senior official added, but all indications point to an Iranian role…..
A number of Lebanese have also publicly complained about Hezbollah, saying its attack on Israeli soldiers last Wednesday was carried out unilaterally and has drawn the country into a conflict it did not seek.
At the Arab summit meeting on Saturday, Syria’s foreign minister, Walid Moallem, lashed back at the critics of Hezbollah, The Associated Press reported, demanding, “How can we come here to discuss the burning situation in Lebanon while others are making statements criticizing the resistance?”
The countries supporting Syria included Yemen, Algeria and Lebanon.
More on Yemen and Hezbollah from MN: Yemen along with Syria unequivocally backs Hezbollah: : Similar divisions surfaced during the talks Saturday at the Arab League, said several representatives who took part in the meeting but asked not to be quoted by name because the discussions are supposed to remain confidential. They said officials split into three camps over how to address the crisis. Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Algeria showed strong support for Hezbollah. American-allied nations such as Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and the Persian Gulf states, meanwhile, consider the group responsible for much of the violence. Countries such as Morocco, Sudan, Libya and Oman didn’t blame Hezbollah, but urged it to work more closely with the Lebanese government.
From the Daily Star Foreign Minister, all Arab states should cut ties with Israel: But for states like Yemen, the crisis should force countries like Egypt and Jordan to cut all ties with the Jewish state. “We must take swift steps with sincere intentions to solve the Arab-Arab differences which create an obstacle to reaching a unified Arab position,” Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi said, calling on all Arab states to “end any cooperation with Israel.”
From the official news agency SABA: Saleh calls for activation of mutual defense treaty: – President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Wednesday for holding an Arab emergency summit, demanding for activating the treaty of the Arab common defense to face the Israeli aggression against Palestine and Lebanon. ” If we activate the treaty of Arab common defense that represent the unification of the Arab nation as one family and the Palestinian blood is Arab blood and the Lebanese and the Syrian bloods are Arab blood” Saleh said in an interview with Alarabia TV. Channel.
From the YO: MP calls for financial assistance to resistance, to dismiss US Ambassador and return all US finds and cancel programs: Yemeni MPs have called for making a law to allocate a portion of oil revenues in support of the Arab resistance against the Israeli occupation. In addition, they called for dismissing the US ambassador in protest of the US support to Israel against Palestine and Lebanon.
To underscore this sentiment, millions of people are planning to stage a demonstration and a march starting from Al-Saba’een Field to the US embassy. The Deputy Speaker of the Parliament suggested that each MP should designate 100,000 YR, for a total of 30,500,000 YR, in aid of the Palestinian resistance instead of mere demonstrations that usually achieve little or no result.
The Parliament held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the Israeli trespasses against the Palestinians and Lebanese. At that meeting, many MPs, who usually keep silent about most of the local issues, presented their views while those usually active presented respected proposals. MP Ali Ashal, a representative of Islah party, and Sakr al-Wajeeh, proposed the law that would allocate part of the oil revenues and the state budget, or any other available sources to Palestinian aid.
Sultan al-Atwani, general secretary of the Popular Unionist Nasserite Party called for dismissing the US ambassador, Thomas Krajesky from Sana’a. Furthermore, he called for ending cooperation with all international agencies under the umbrella of the United States, regarded as the main supporter of the Zionist entity. This comes as a result of the US veto of the Security Council’s resolution that criminalizes Israel’s acts and demands an end to the mass killing of the Palestinian people.
From the Kajeel Times Saleh Proposes Summit, 6 agree: Six of the 22 members of the Arab League favour holding an Arab summit on the violence between Israel and Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on Monday.
The response falls short of the two-thirds majority needed for a summit to go ahead but more governments could sign up for a summit in the days to come, a league official added. The six members are Algeria, Egypt, Qatar, Sudan, Yemen and the Palestinians. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh made a formal request for a summit last week.
From NY: Parties support resistance. Yemeni political parties strongly condemned the Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples. The General People’s Congress (GPC) described the Israeli attacks as “stimulating Arab and Islamic feelings and peace advocators all over the world”, asking for immediate intervention by the international community to obligate the Israeli government to stop using weapons against unarmed citizens, institutions and infrastructure in Lebanon and Palestine, to respect the international resolutions and withdraw from Arab occupied lands.
Opposition parties also announced their support for peoples in Palestine and Lebanon “in their fight for their right of survival and defeating occupier.” The Joint Meeting Parties called Arab and Islamic nations and their forces to standby the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance and to offer them moral and material support to conquer the Israeli arrogance supported by America. They called Arab capitals that contain embassies for Israel to close such embassies. They described allowing those embassies to open in Arab countries as “swindling martyrs.”
A US ally on the WOT, Saleh also has warm relations with Syria’s Bashir Assad and claimed to have delivered a letter from Assad to Bush in November. Ties between Yemen and Iran have been deepening bilaterally with several high level meetings and assorted trade and financial agreements established. Yemen supports Iran’s right to nuclear technology. One of Saleh’s campaign pledges is to gain nuclear technology to build power plants, and the regime has sugested regional cooperation in nuclear development.
While public statements by Saleh and regime officials may be in part pre-election posturing designed for domestic consumption, the regime consistently has supported external “forces of resistance.” In December, Yemen hosted the al-Quds conference and attendees included leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iraqi Muslim Scholars Association. Hamas and Hebollah maintain offices and fund raising for Hamas is common. Many Iraqi Baathists are in Yemen, some of whom have aided the insurgency in Yemen, including Saddams nephew wanted by Interpol for directing terrorist acts from Yemen. A Yemeni court recently noted that waging jihad in Iraq is not illegal according to Yemeni law, but rather is “a duty.” Other assorted jihadists in Chechnya, Sudan, Somalia have recieved some unofficial support fromYemen. Violence in Yemen in discouraged and Saleh has a series of agreements and accomidations with Yemeni militants not to attack within Yemen.
