BEIRUT, 9 July 2004 — Yemen’s president has accused foreign elements of supporting a deadly rebellion led by an extremist preacher, besieged with his supporters in Yemen’s northern mountains, a newspaper here reported yesterday.

“We accuse outside parties” of supporting Hussein Badr Eddin Al-Huthi’s rebellion, “but we cannot point the finger at any country or party,” Ali Abdullah Saleh told Al-Mustaqbal in an interview.

The cleric, whose supporters have been battling the Yemeni Army in Saada province since June 18, “pays 100 dollars to every man who repeats his slogans, which is 18,000 Yemeni riyals,” the president said.

“This is a huge sum. Where does he get all this money? Who is the party financing him and to what end? We’re leading an investigation into this but it’s not possible that a local source is financing him,” he added.

“Books and other publications, expensively published, about the Shiites and printed in Beirut have been found on Huthi’s supporters,” who have been captured, and this is also being investigated, he said.

The Yemeni leader, however, refused to implicate the Lebanese fundamentalist group Hezbollah with the publications, expressing “deep respect” for Hezbollah, “especially for its position against Israel occupation forces in south Lebanon.”

“Huthi has returned to Iran and has visited Hezbollah in Lebanon but we cannot say he obtained the support of one or the other, and Hezbollah denies all links” with his movement, said Saleh.

He also said he believes the clashes, raging in and around Huthi’s stronghold of Maran, near the border with Saudi Arabia, would “soon end.”

“Huthi will surrender at his own will, or will be forced to” give himself up, he added.

Fierce fighting between Huthi’s supporters and the Yemeni Army has killed a total of least 166.

Huthi, a member of the Zaidi community, is wanted by authorities for allegedly seeking to foment sectarian strife.

The Zaidis are a moderate Shiite sect dominant in northwestern Yemen but in the minority in the mainly Sunni country.

Army and police forces deployed reinforcements around the stronghold of the self-styled “Emir Al-Mumineen”, or Prince of Believers, after the failure on June 28 of a mediation bid initiated by authorities to secure his surrender.