Armies of Liberation

Al-Motamar is the website of Yemen’s ruling party, the GPC, that dominates every aspect of Yemen. Mohammed Khatan is an authentic, reform minded, prominent member of the opposition Islamic party Islah. Al-Motamar apparently published “news” that he met foreign intelligence agencies. The regime calls everybody a spy, opposition journalists and politicians, civil society activists etc. Other common insults from the regime are: Zionist, drunk, sexually depraved, American stooge, Iranian stooge, satanic, seperatist, terrorist and so on. Also bizarre animal references are oddly common from the regime’s spokesmen.

The following article from al-Motamar disapproves of whatever statement the JMP (the opposition party coalition) made in response to al-Motamar’s allegations, which are, of course, false.

almotamar.net – A source at the General People’s Congress (GPC)’s information office Wednesday described a statement attributed to Mohammed al-Sabri, the spokesman for the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) as regrettable. He said the language of al-Sabri lacks courtesy, indicating the importance that those tense inside the JMP should abandon impolite vocabulary full of vulgarity and agitation that would not serve opportunities of the success dialogue now ongoing between the GPC and the parties of the JMP.

The source demanded al-Sabri and those behind him to be patient enough before unleashing uncivil words and name-callings because they reflect a state of agitation and total absence of reason.
The source said that Qahtan should have responded in his name to the newspaper that published the news story and to refute the news or file a lawsuit against the website instead of al-Sabri volunteering in unleashing names. He pointed out that the almotamar.net that published the news does not form a stance or opinion in the name of the GPC or the authority but rather information as part of press service of news the site offers to its visitors.

The almotamar.net website has quoted reliable sources that Mohammed Qahtan the former official spokesman of the JMP in Yemen has in the past few days communicated foreign intelligence apparatuses informing them on information and evaluations on Yemen as well as what is related to the formation of the new government and the committee on fighting corruption \and upcoming parliamentary elections in 2009.

Update: The the JMP called the GPC media outlet a sick baby animal. (The suject they are discussing is the dialog between the JMP and GPC.)

“The General People’s Congress media address seems like an unhealthy animal suffering ailing infancy and its success relies mostly on individuals who either are underdogs, cheats or traitors”, a Joint Meeting Parties official source commented.

The source expressed deep sorrow at the GPC media address, noting that it is a large party with prominent staff that has been responsible for running the country for a decade. “Before this, we were advocating separating ruling party interests and abilities from state facilities, but now we demand separation between exercising political activities and the infancy age,” the source stated to Nasspress.net.

So that put a damper on the dialog:

Sanaa: Yemen’s three main opposition parties said they may not continue dialogue with the ruling party after a dispute led to the withdrawal of all three parties at the fourth dialogue session on Wednesday.

Talks on ways to handle the impact of 1994 civil war led to the withdrawal of the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from the session after a ruling party official said the dialogue on the issue will be carried out with the Socialists alone.

Earlier last month, the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) started dialogues with four opposition parties, which are represented in the House of Representatives, on certain issues relating to political and economic reforms.

The Islamic Islah party, the Socialist Party, the Unionist Nasserite Party, and the Arab Ba’ath Socialist party form the opposition alliance of the Joint Meeting Parties (JMPs).

“JMPs has withdrawn from the session because GPC has opposed the project for comprehensive political reform especially … the treatment of the impact of previous political conflicts, including the impact of the 1994 war,” said Mohammad Al Sabri, JMPs spokesman.

JMPs will reconsider the usefulness of the dialogue after these four sessions with GPC, and then it will decide to continue or not, Al Sabri added. GPC denied that it opposed how to treat the impact of the 1994 war, saying the parties had agreed that the issue would be within the dialogue.

“The dialogue is being conducted between all political parties that are represented in the House of Representatives and not only between GPC and JMPs … the treatment of the impact of the 1994 war is among the issues we agreed to discuss,” said Tareq Al Shami, GPC spokesman.

Foreign intelligence

The withdrawal also came after the GPC website accused a senior JMPs official of making contact with foreign intelligence.

“Mohammad Qahtan, the former spokesman of JMPs, has been in contact over the last few days with a foreign intelligence agency. He gave them some misleading information on the formation of the new government, combating corruption, and the 2009 parliamentary elections,” almotamar.net, the GPC website, quoted what it called well-informed sources as saying.

Qahtan, member of the Supreme Council of the Islah party, recently attended a conference in Turkey where he met some European officials on the sidelines of the conference.

“We can reply with documents … we think some people within GPC want the language of conflict to continue,” said Al Sabri.

The Baathists withdrew from the JMP July 2006. I have to check if they rejoined.

Dialog breaks down.