SANAA, 14 Nov — Foreign Minister Abu-Baker al-Qirbi Saturday said Yemeni intelligence agencies are investigating “the involvement of non-official Iranian individuals in supporting Shiite rebels in north Yemen.” He talked about Iranian media support of the rebels and said “Iran understands that it would never allow any group to raise arms inside its territories,” adding “by backing the insurgents, the Iranian media did not think of Iran’s interests and I told the Iranian foreign minister that Yemen wants a change in the stand of the Iranian media.” “Yemen did not ask for the help of the United States in facing the Huthi gang of terrorism,” al-Qirbi said, adding “cooperation between Yemen and the United States is related to combating terrorism.” The state official news agency, Saba late last week reported Yemen signed a military cooperation agreement with the United States but the US embassy in Sanaa denied the report saying “only the minutes of a meeting between US and Yemeni officials was signed,” and al-Qirbi said “the United States, Europe, the Gulf states and Arab countries all of them confirmed support of Yemen’s security and stability because everyone knows that the security of Yemen can affect the entire region.” He described the rebels infiltration into Saudi territories as “an intrusion and I think they will pay dearly for that,” but he said “the geographical nature of the border area with the kingdom makes it difficult to establish complete security however coordination and cooperation in the future will put things in their proper place.” On the economy, he said “after the unification and the defeat of the separatists, the state was hoping to focus its efforts on development and institutions but unfortunately and because of many reasons, chief among them the economy, the government’s plans were hampered out.”







