Yemen rebels willing to withdraw from Saudi Arabia if attacks end

“We are prepared to withdraw from sites if... Saudi Arabia does not attack any one of us from its territory,” said the spokesman, Mohammed Abdel Salam.

On Tuesday, Saudi Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan gave Yemeni rebels 24 hours to withdraw from the border village of Al-Jabiri which they are occupying.

“They have 24 hours to surrender, or we will destroy them,” he said.

The rebels mocked the ultimatum in a statement on their website late on Tuesday, asking why Saudi forces had not already moved against the village.

“The question is: what have you been doing these past days?” the statement said.

The rebels' spokesman said their key grievance against Saudi Arabia was the kingdom's decision to allow the Yemeni army to use its territory against their positions, a charge Riyadh denies.

“We believe that the essence of the problem with Saudi Arabia is not land or borders, for we faced Yemeni aggression from Saudi Arabia,” Salam said.

“We entered Saudi territory in response to Saudi aggression against Yemen, by its air force and through ground attacks in Saada (province),” he added.

“All we ask for is good neighbourly relations.”

Fighting between Saudi forces and the rebels kicked off on November 3, when the kingdom accused the rebels of killing a border guard and occupying two villages in its territory.

Saudi jets began bombing rebel positions the following day.

Prince Khaled said on Tuesday that the fighting has killed 73 Saudi soldiers, wounded 470 and left 26 missing.

The rebels first rose up in 2004. The Yemeni government launched a major offensive in August to try to end the uprising. Aid groups say more than 150,000 people have been driven from their homes.

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