SANA'A: Yemen's Brigadier General Yehia Mohamed Abdullah Saleh, one of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's nephew, billionaire businessmen and commander of the country Central Security Forces revealed in a recent televised interview that he had no personal political ambition, stressing that given the level of national ingratitude towards his uncle, “anyone would be mad to have ambition of ruling Yemen.” The general assured citizens that he was supporting President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi and that he had indeed cast his vote in his favor, as he felt it was his “national duty to support Yemen's power-transfer mechanism as wished by [former] President Saleh.” He reminded his audience that if it wasn't for the “selfless act” of his uncle, the country would be still caught up in the chains of war. When questioned on the recent attack by al-Qaeda in Mukallah against the presidential palace, Gen. Saleh denied rumors that the terror group had staged the bombing in reaction to President Hadi's promises that he would continue on the fight against terror, revealing that the group had been planning the move for quite some time, adding that the timing was just circumstantial. Yehia Saleh attributed the surge in al-Qaeda's activities in the southern provinces of Yemen to the popular uprising, saying that the state had been forced to pull out its anti-terrorist units and dispatch them to protect the state institutions when protesters became violent, which automatically left terror militants free to roam the land. When finally asked what he made of protesters claims that his family had, through its control of the military and the government, contributed to Yemen's problems, allowing corruption and injustice to strive, the general vehemently argued that such allegations “were typical of the opposition's propaganda rhetoric and were baseless.” The general refused to comment on the military restructuring plan, which could see him leave his post as the head of the Central Security forces, saying that at present he “was not aware of any change.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/CWBYV Tags: Military, Saleh, Security, Yehia Saleh Section: Latest News, Yemen
