President Ali Abdullah Saleh confirmed that Iran supports Houthi rebels, saying that some groups in Iran and Iraq at the back of terrorism, sedition, rebellion and insurgency in Sa’ada governorate.

Saleh said that the Yemeni government cannot accuse the Iranian government, but said the mediation offered by Iran meant that Iran has direct contact with Houthi followers and the same applies to Muqtada Al-Sadr in Iraq, who seeks to mediate between the Yemeni government and the rebels. “This is what we proclaim with absolute transparency”, he said.

“Security forces have seized two cells whose members acknowledged that they received some $100,000 from some destinations in Iran,” he said, adding that judicial decisions have been issued to a number of them as well.

As for the opposition parties represented by the Joint Meeting Parties JMP, he said that the ruling party General People’s Congress GPC called them for dialogue but said the JMP refused dialogue and they were for postponing the elections.

“The way the opposition parties see the national issues is unacceptable,” he said, adding “The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) adopted political stances that do not serve the country overarching interests and helped incite and foment sedition and rebellion as was the case with the Houthi insurrections.”

President Saleh pointed out that several countries are looking for roles to play in Yemen including Libya and Qatar which acted as mediators between the government and Houthi followers.

He said that the Qatari mediation ended and a local mediation committee has taken over its tasks; however, there were some negative effects for the mediation, which in result made Houthis act as if they are peers for the state.