Hamid al Ahmar: Republican Guards Supporting Rebels
Hamid al Ahmar in an interview on al Jazeera made several interesting statements including that the president is guarded by 60 thousand army personnel in Sanaa, He also disclosed the name of the arms dealer (Yousef Al-Magani) that bought arms for Houthi rebels in the 4th war from Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, head of the republican guard, in a conspiracy to eliminate Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmer. Hamid also dared the president to visit Abyan or Sadaa or stay for 2 months in Aden to prove that he is still the president of the country. Publicly exposing Prince Ahmed this way gives Ali Mohsen the legitimacy to move against him without instigating a vendetta from within their tribe.
While it may seem at first glance an absurd proposition, waging a war to weaken the general running it, it provides a logical explanation for many occurences over the last five years, including why the war never seems to be won. It was Ali Mohsen’s newspaper that disclosed the Chinese shipload of weapons for the rebels that was imported by the defense ministry. One should never underestimate the level of duplicity that the Sana’a regime is capable of, or its excellence at propaganda. President Saleh IS the King of Spin.
Yemen Herald:
SANAA, 07 Nov – Tribal leader and business tycoon, Sheik Hamid Abdullah al-Ahmar late Friday accused the Republican Guards of supporting the Shiite rebels in previous wars. He said “the Yemeni army is no longer capable of ending the war in north Yemen militarily because it lost trust in the political leadership in Yemen which plays around with peoples’ lives.” Al-Ahmar who was speaking to the Doha-based al-Jazeera satellite TV channel said “the Republican Guards headed by the President’s son supported the Shiite rebels in north Yemen in order to hit the First Artillery military division led by Brigadier General Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar and hence get rid of him,” adding “a rebel leader is a friend of the President’s son, Ahmad Ali Abdullah Saleh.” Ali Mohsen is President Saleh’s half brother and al-Ahmar talked about “internal conflict between the various wings inside the army about the war in Sadaa,” and called on President Saleh to visit Abyan or Sadaa “in order to prove to us that he is still the President of all of Yemen,” adding “the President no longer has a state to rule.” “The state no longer exists except in the Presidential Palace and in the capital, Sanaa which is protected by 60 thousand troops,” Al-Ahmar said, adding “dialogue is the only hope to bring Yemen out of this situation,” stressing “dialogue with everyone is still possible to resolve the current crisis in Yemen.” He accused President Saleh of “wanting to turn the country into a monarchy through his pursuit to install his son in power,” and renewed his call for the President to step down, stressing “changing the head is the door to reforming the situations in Yemen.” “If President Saleh wants the people to stand by him against monarchism, then he should first get rid of his monarchy and if he wants people to stand by him to protect the nation’s unity, then he has to prove his patriotism by lifting injustice,” he said, and criticized the management of the war in north Yemen saying “the way this war is run has humiliated the army and caused it to lose its fighting moral.”
