Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called upon countries neighboring Israel to let Yemeni troops in to fight alongside the Palestinians.
"If our brothers in the countries [bordering Israel] allow it, we are prepared to send our sons and our youth to fight alongside our brothers in Palestine," Saleh told a rally Tuesday night in Hajjah, some 80 kilometers north of the capital.
"The next battle will be decisive when the borders are open before the Mujahedin and the Arab fighter to support their Palestinian brethren," Saleh said, quoted by the official SABA news agency.
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria border Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Yemen was "determined to support [Palestinian] President Yasser Arafat and the heroic Palestinian people by sending funds and [military] equipment because the war is not yet over."
Meanwhile, at least three people were wounded Tuesday when police blocked demonstrators protesting at Israel's assault on West Bank towns from reaching the British Consulate in the southern port city of Aden, witnesses said.
In the capital city of Sa’naa, security forces also stopped a march to the U.S. and Egyptian Embassies, without resorting to force.
The demonstrators, estimated at tens of thousands by organizers, wanted to hand the Egyptian ambassador a message "addressed to all Arab leaders" calling on them to "intervene urgently to rescue the Palestinian people," according to a copy of the message obtained by AFP.
Yemenis have been taking to the streets on a day to day basis since Israel launched an offensive on West Bank cities and confined Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to his Ramallah compound on March 29th. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
