Yemen says Shiite rebels getting funds from Iran groups
WashingtonTV
15-Sep-2009
Washington, 10 September (WashingtonTV)—Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Wednesday that Shiite rebels in the north were receiving funds from Iran and Iraqi Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.

Saleh said that two groups of rebel fighters currently on trial had confessed to receiving around 100,000 dollars in funding from Iran.

The president told Al Jazeera television that his government could not accuse the Iranian government, but that Tehran’s willingness to mediate between Sana’a and the rebels showed that Iran was in contact with the rebels.

“What we could say with complete transparency is that they (the rebels) are receiving support,” he was quoted by AFP as saying.

Iran has denied supporting the rebels, and has called for a political solution to the fighting, which erupted last month. The conflict first broke out in 2004.

According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have fled their homes during the surge in fighting, reports Reuters.

The Shiite rebels reject the current government and want to reinstall a religious imamate overthrown in a 1962 coup. >>>
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