The Yemeni media has spread a 15-minute video address by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, which he reportedly recorded six hours before being killed in December 2017 and dedicated to the Yemeni people. Saleh reportedly slams the Shia Houthi rebels who captured the country’s capital.
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The founder of the General People's Congress party stated in the address that Houthis had slayed his party’s leadership and his relatives. He accused the rebels of trying to destroy the republican system and create a “theocratic state.” as well as implement their failed economy policy.
“I call on the people’s uprising and nation-wide strike to defend the republican state, freedom and democracy,” he stated, saying that the fighting was only 150 meters away from his house.
He also took aim at the Saudi-led coalition, which had been launching airstrikes on Yemen since 2015, urging it to “end the aggression and turn to a dialogue.”
Saleh concluded his address saying, “Greet you, the people of Yemen, and farewell!”
In December 2017, former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who had initially considered the Houthi movement an ally against the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, eventually switched sides and announced Hadi as his ally. He called for a dialogue with the Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf countries, which has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request since March 2015. Two days later Saleh was killed in his house by a Houthi sniper.
The situation in Yemen has been unstable since 2015 when a civil war broke out. The war is being waged between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Houthi rebels backed by army units loyal to Saleh. Tensions between the Houthis and Saleh loyalists escalated in November 2017 and eventually led to fighting in the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa.