Houthi spokesman calls on Yemen’s Saleh to implement 12 requests

The head of the so-called Supreme Revolutionary Council of the Houthis, Mohamed Ali Al Houthi, admitted, in response to remarks made by ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh, that there were discrepancies in the institutions under their control.

The spokesman of the militias, Mohammed Abdul Salam, recalled the twelve points earlier put forward by their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi. The major clause within these points is the activation of the emergency law to confront the so-called “fifth column” and the opening of recruitment in the army.

On the other hand, Saleh had denied in his statements the existence of any differences with the Houthis. However, it is clear to many observers that the debates between the deposed president and some of the leaders of Houthi militias have returned.

According to Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, Houthi leaders responded to Saleh and stressed the existence of imbalances in the institutions of the “state of Sanaa,” but also called him to remedy to these predicaments through what they called a committee of scholars.

Saleh interview
Saleh had said the country's Houthi militias feared a "coup" but that there were no longer any tensions with them, despite strains in the past fortnight.

"There is no crisis and conflict at the moment," the 75-year-old strongman said late Monday in an interview on Al-Yemen Al-Yom television, which his party controls.

On August 24, hundreds of thousands put on a show of force for Saleh at a rally marking the 35th anniversary of his Arab nationalist General People's Congress (GPC) party.

"There were fears and suspicions that the rally would be a coup" against the Iran-backed Huthis, and "this is what their leaders told us," said the former president.

Saleh said Houthi leaders told him there had been "an operation" against them and a GPC plot to "take control of state institutions".

In response, Saleh said he had sent two letters to Abdel Malek al-Houthi, head of the militia group, to reassure him.

"I asked him not to believe the suspicions, and he reacted positively," he added.

Cracks emerged in the alliance between Saleh and Houthis after the two publicly accused each other of treason and back-stabbing.

In an unprecedented outbreak of violence between the allies on August 26, a colonel loyal to Saleh and two militias were killed.

Saleh ruled Yemen with an iron fist for more than three decades before stepping down in 2012 after a bloody, year-long uprising.

But the strongman retained the loyalty of some of the best-equipped units in the military and later joined forces with the Houthis, after they overran the capital in 2014.

source: Alarabiya