Yemen warns Qatar over funding of dissidents

Yemen said it has intercepted financial transfers made through Qatar to fund opposition to its government and is warning the tiny Gulf country to stop supporting the strife.

“The authorities have discovered transactions made through Qatar and the mediator in this is our former ambassador (in Cairo) Abdulwali al-Shumeiri,” deputy information minister Abdo al-Janadi told AFP.

“We call onto Qatar… to stop financially supporting rifts inside Yemen’s army and to work instead on (backing) the country’s security and stability,” said Janadi.

AFP reports:

Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is recovering in Saudi Arabia from wounds sustained in a blast that hit his presidential palace in Sanaa, accused Qatar in April of a “conspiracy” against his country.

He also accused it of “funding chaos” throughout several Arab countries rocked by a wave of protests that toppled regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, inspiring similar uprising in other countries including Yemen…

Despite strong Western and Arab Gulf pressure, Saleh has repeatedly refused to sign up to the proposals under which he would hand power to the vice president within 30 days in exchange for a promise of immunity from prosecution.

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