SANA'A: Abdel Malek al-Houthi, the leader of the Shia movement in Yemen's northern territories announced on Sunday that he wanted to see the creation of a caretaker government in waiting for the organization of “real and democratic elections in Yemen.” Al-Houthi, who has accused the regime of persecuting his people for they represented a threat to neighboring Saudi Arabia in that their religious denomination, was considered a heretic in the eye of the “Custodian of the 2 Holy Mosques,” Saudi King Abdullah. “We demand the Yemenis also commissioned experts to formulate a new constitution, and the formation of a national body to restructure the army based on national rules,” wrote Abdel Malek al-Houthi in his statement to the press. The group, which promised to lay down its weapons if the government agreed to a fair representation of Yemen's different political factions, as it argued only then could Yemen warring entities could cohabit peacefully and create the civil state Yemenis were so eager to create. Al-Houthi further announced that his men would boycott the presidential election as they do not recognize Vice-President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi's legitimacy nor that of the coalition government since so many of the remnants of President Ali Abdullah Saleh are still in charge of the state affairs, in spite of widespread popular outcry. The Shia rebels have used the power-vacuum created by a year of unrest to extend their territorial influence to several northern provinces, prompting fear that Iran, which is believed to be financially supporting them, was planning an attack by proxy against its ideological nemesis, Saudi Arabia. Analysts in Yemen have warned that if the Shia group was kept from expressing its opinion politically, the country could very well edge towards a sectarian conflict. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/SUT1w Tags: Elections, Houthis, Islam, Shia Section: Latest News, Religion, Yemen
