Yemeni head blames Israel, U.S. for protests
Anti-government events also proceed in Oman, Iran
SANAA, Yemen – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh delivered a fiery speech Tuesday blaming Israel and the United States for destabilizing the Arab world, saying the anti-government protests in his capital were being run by the White House.
Saleh’s accusations marked a departure for the president, a longtime ally of the United States in the war against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and the recipient of hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid in recent years.
“Every day we hear a statement from (President Barack) Obama saying, ‘Egypt you can’t do this, Tunisia don’t do that,’ ” Saleh told students and professors at Sanaa University. “What do you have to do with Egypt? Or with Oman? Are you president of the United States or president of the world?”
White House press secretary Jay Carney rebuked Saleh’s criticism, saying he should focus on political reforms in his country.
The remarks coincided with an anti-government protest that drew about 10,000 to the streets of Sanaa, the capital, where an influential cleric, Sheik Abdul Majeed Zindani, called for the people of Yemen to replace the government with an Islamic state, raising both cheers and concerns from the assembled crowd representing a diverse cross section of the country.
Zindani, a cleric with a henna-dyed beard whom the U.S. considers a terrorist, was a spiritual mentor to Osama bin Laden but has publicly rejected terrorism. He called on Saleh to grant the protesters’ “legitimate demands and rights.”
The events in Yemen developed as unrest and political change continued to grip much of North Africa and the Middle East, from Libya to the Arabian Sea.
In Oman, Yemen’s neighbor to the east, protests continued for a fourth day. The government deployed tanks to quash protesters seeking jobs and constitutional reform in the industrial city of Sohar where the unrest began.
In Iran, clashes erupted between security forces and opposition supporters in Tehran at a rally calling for the release of Iranian opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, witnesses and media reports said. Security forces used tear gas on demonstrators, detained dozens and chased others, a witness said.