After rescued by Qatar, Shiite Houthis kill Saleh

CAIRO – 5 December 2017: Yemen's Houthi rebels announced on Monday that they killed former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh as fighting broke out in the capital Sanaa.

The Houthi's leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, hailed the news of Saleh's death as a "great and significant occasion". He claimed that Houthi militias managed to foil a "conspiracy" by a Saudi-led coalition backing the government.

Saleh, a former ally to the rebel Houthis, a Shiite group linked with the regional foe Iran, had recently switched his alliance to Saudi Arabia, which has been fighting terrorism and Houthi militias in Yemen over three years.

Saleh was killed just hours after Saudi Arabia welcomed Saleh's call to fight the Houthis, the one which he called "a popular uprising."

Circulated footage showed the 2012-ouster president's body wrapped in a blanked with a wide wound on the left side of his head.

Qatar's recent attempt to save the Houthis came as Saleh's supporters battled Houthi militias for a fourth day in Sanaa, until finally Saleh announced that Yemen's parliament, dominated by his party, was the only legitimate power in the country.

Saleh then said he is ready for talks with the Saudi-led coalition, a move that the coalition welcomed.

Two days earlier, press reported that Tamim attempted to mediate to end the tension that sparked between the two conflicting sides in Sanaa, an attempt that Saleh refused.

Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, admitted, during his participation at the third edition of the Rome MED – Mediterranean Dialogues, Qatar's interference in the conflict and affirmed that Qatar offered Saleh $10 billion on condition that he must stop chasing the Houthis.

Qatar was trying to mediate to save Houthi militias from the grip of Saleh's supporters. As a matter of fact; this was not the first time Doha interfered to save the Houthis from being eliminated.

A mediation attempt, also initiated by Doha, eased the situation between Saleh's supporters and Houthi militias during a war that could have ended the Houthi rebellion once and for all except for Qatar's interference to save them.

UAE's Minister of State Anwar Gargash wrote on Twitter that the Qatari mediation to save Houthi militias is "documented", he said it will not work because it is against the Yemeni people's will, which looks forward to his Arabic milieu's nature.

الوساطة القطرية لإنقاذ مليشيات الحوثي الطائفية موثقة، ولن تنجح لأنها ضد إرادة الشعب اليمني الذي يتطلع إلى محيطه العربي الطبيعي.

— د. أنور قرقاش (@AnwarGargash) December 2, 2017

Saleh’s GPC party accused the Houthis of failing to honor a truce and said in a statement on its website that the Houthis bear responsibility for dragging the country into a civil war.

Qatar was part of the Saudi-led coalition that entered the Yemen civil war in 2015 to support internationally backed President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Qatar was dismissed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in early June, after it was accused of extremism and terrorism. Qatar also hindered Emirati and Saudi efforts to neutralize threats by the Iranian-backed Houthis.

Omar Saif Gobash, UAE ambassador to Russia said in an interview with the BBC on 20 Jul. that the UAE government has voice and video recordings that prove Qatar’s dealing with terror groups across the Middle East. He revealed a serious incident in which Qatar officials gave the terror network Al Qaida in Yemen the exact location of the UAE forces, which were planning to attack the terrorist group.

“Everybody knows for the last few years Qatar has had a close relationship with Al Nusra, which is referred to as Al Qaida affiliated,” the ambassador said.

Yemen’s civil war has killed more than 10,000 people since 2015, displaced more than two million people, caused a cholera outbreak infecting nearly one million people and put the country on the brink of famine, thanks to a conflict that Qatar has been fueling all in favor of the Qatari regime's agenda.