Yemeni leader threatens action against separatist demonstrators

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi condemns last week’s demonstrations in Aden Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi has hit out at the country’s opposition groups, accusing them of trying to destabilise the country. In a statement issued today,President Hadi confirmed that he had set up a committee ready to take action against anti-government protesters.A recent crackdown in Yemen against protesters calling for southern independence has inflamed tensions in the country.
The southern cities of Aden and Hadramout witnessed a number of violent demonstrations last week, after leaders of the southern separatists, led by Yemen’s former vice president Ali Salem el-Beid, called on supporters to take to the streets as a mark of civil disobedience.
The Yemeni president said: “The arms in Aden are a red line. The law and the regime will punish those people who use weapons to destabilise the country and terrorise the residents.”
Hit by the Arab Spring revolutions in 2012, Yemen’s long-serving former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was forced to resign amid a wave of public protest.
The country is due to hold a conference next month, which the UN says, is designed to unify opposition parties and create a coalition government. The Yemeni President also described the upcoming National Dialogue Conference as an “historic opportunity that signals worldwide support for Yemen to overcome its current crisis and to pave the way for restoring security and stability.”
However, some Yemenis, mainly from the south, feel shut out from the process and are demanding a return of the previously independent state of South Yemen.
The news comes as the Yemeni military confirmed today that it will set up a committee to investigate the violence, it claims, was committed by separatist protestors during last week’s uprisings.
“We refuse to tolerate any forms of lawlessness that threaten to destabilise the country,” a spokesperson for the new committee told Arabstoday.
Meanwhile, President Hadi has called on opposition parties and the Yemeni troops to exercise restraint, particularly after recent revelations that the Iranian government has pledged support to south separatist leader el-Beid.