Yemen president says long-running war with northern rebels is over following cease-fire

Yemen president: War with northern rebels is over

CAIRO — Yemen’s president on Friday declared the country’s six-year war with northern rebels over, saying the Shiite militants are living up to a cease-fire agreement signed last month.

After years of sporadic fighting, Yemen has come under international pressure to quickly end the conflict — which spilled over into Saudi Arabia late last year — to free up resources to confront a separate threat from an al-Qaida offshoot in the country.

In an interview with the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television, Ali Abdullah Saleh said rebels have given “positive signs” that they are committed to the cease-fire they struck with the government in February.

“We can say that the war is over. It has not (temporarily) stopped and it is not a truce. We consider it over,” Saleh said.

He added that the rebels were abiding by the conditions of the cease-fire, including removing road blocs, releasing captured soldiers and relinquishing seized property. Saleh said the commitment the militants have shown is more than in previous agreements, which quickly collapsed.

The northern rebels have been battling Yemen’s government for nearly six years, complaining of neglect and sectarian discrimination. Neighboring Saudi Arabia was drawn into the fighting in November after a cross-border raid killed one of its soldiers.

Saleh said Yemen’s military and security forces will finish deploying along the border with Saudi Arabia in the next 10 days to prevent smuggling and border breaches. He said his country is also considering joint patrols with Saudi Arabia as well as erecting watch towers along the border to monitor smuggling.

U.S. and Saudi Arabia fear that al-Qaida operatives, who have increasingly found refuge in Yemen’s lawless regions, could take advantage of the conflict and strengthen their position in the impoverished country.

Washington has pressured Yemen’s government to crack down on the country’s al-Qaida network, and the Pentagon has earmarked some $150 million in military assistance to San’a to help combat the threat.

Backed with U.S. intelligence, Yemen has beefed up its operations against the terror group’s hideouts, increasing the number of airstrikes targeting the network’s operatives.

Saleh denied allegations that there are U.S. troops in Yemen. He said U.S.-Yemeni cooperation in combatting terrorism involves training and the exchange of information.

“There is no American presence in Yemen’s lands and seas,” he said. “There is U.S.-Yemeni cooperation in counterterrorism, in training. And the personnel of that mission numbers no more than 40-50 people.”

Saleh was critical of his country’s rehabilitation and dialogue program with militants, which aims to reform extremists. He acknowledged that a large number of them have returned to militancy, including an al-Qaida member who was recently killed in an airstrike, but vowed the program would continue.

“We will not give up. We will continue dialogue,” he said.

Yemen also faces a secessionist movement in its south, where an increasingly vocal separatists have clashed with the central government.

Southerners complain of neglect and discrimination by the north. The two halves of the country were separate nations until they united in 1990.