President of Yemen Ali Abdallah Saleh: Israeli PM Olmert Connected to Terrorists Caught in Yemen

Following are excerpts from an interview with President of Yemen Ali Abdallah Saleh, which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV, on October 22, 2008.

Interviewer: You were talking about the involvement of several foreign intelligence agencies in the recent [terror] attack.

President Ali Abdallah Saleh: Israel.

Interviewer: Yes, Israel. Do you have substantial evidence that Israel...

Saleh: I have information about the ties [of the terrorists] with the office of the former Israeli prime minister... What's his name... Olmert.

Interviewer: Yes, Olmert.

Saleh: This [terrorist] group is now in the hands of the judiciary.

Interviewer: This group belongs to the so-called "Islamic Jihad."

Saleh: More or less.

Interviewer: Why do you think Israel is trying to destabilize Yemen? Does this have to do with the Red Sea and safe passage through it?

Interviewer: Israel wants to keep the region boiling – in Palestine, in Syria, in Egypt, everywhere, in Saudi Arabia, in Iraq, everywhere. It believes that the existence of a Jewish state, or the State of Israel, is dependent upon the existence of centers of tension in the region, so that the political, cultural, and literary leaderships will not have a chance to think why this entity was planted like a thorn in the body of the Arab nation. Its interest is to create internal strife everywhere.