SANAA, 22 May 2004 — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday called on Arab leaders to adopt a “joint vision” and set up an Arab States Union as the only way to overcome the challenges facing their nations.
In a speech marking the anniversary of the Yemeni reunification, Saleh said the Arab summit convening in Tunisia today comes at a time of “big challenges facing the (Arab) nations, making it important to come out with a joint Arab vision to confront current problems.”
He called on Arab leaders to establish an “Arab States Union” to “strengthen the capability to deal with the dangers encircling it.”
“With the absence of solidarity, integration and unity, the (Arab) nation will remain a coveted object,” he said.
Regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict, Saleh underlined the need to “reactivate the role of the quartet” in order to implement the road map in accordance with the international legitimacy resolutions.
Saleh called on the international community to “dispatch forces to the Palestinian territories for the protection of the Palestinians from Zionist arrogance.”
He said that a truce should be made by Palestinian and Israeli forces in order to implement the road map and relevant international legitimacy resolutions, mainly the UN Security Council’s resolutions 242 and 338.
As for Iraq, the Yemeni leader urged the United Nations along with the Arab League and the Iraqi interim authority to jointly “form a national assembly which represents all local sects to draft an Iraqi constitution.”
Officially, the Yemeni president will not participate in the Arab summit as he will be attending celebrations for his country’s national day, marking the May 22, 1990 reunification of North and South Yemen.
Meanwhile, Yemeni security forces clashed with an Islamist leader’s armed guards in the southern province of Abyan yesterday, leaving four people including two officers injured, police said.
The firefight erupted when security forces tried to storm the house of Sheikh Tariq Al-Fadhli, an influential Islamist leader and member of the ruling GPC party, to arrest fugitives believed to be hiding there.
Policemen came under “a hail of fire as they tried to enter the house,” said a police official from Zunjubar, Abyan’s provincial capital. He said two security agents, a passerby and one of the building’s guards were injured. He added that the forces were able to enter the house after tribal mediation, and arrested one of the wanted men. The official would not give further details on the number of the fugitives or the nature of their charges.
