Yemen President Blames U.S., Israel for Protests

As the protests in Yemen reached their highest numbers, with hundred of thousands of demonstrators marching in cities across the Middle Eastern country calling for the fall of the regime, Yemen’s embattled U.S.-backed president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has accused the U.S. and Israel of instigating the protests. “I am going to reveal a secret,” said Saleh. “There is an operations room in Tel Aviv with the aim of destabilizing the Arab world…and run by the White House.” Saleh also claimed that the U.S. Embassy in the capital of Sanaa is delivering instructions to the protesters, and that the political unrest in the Arab world serves a “Zionist agenda.” Furthermore, Saleh was critical of President Obama, asking, “Why is he interfering? Is he the president of the United States or the president of the Arab world?” Yemen is an important battleground in the Middle East against al Qaeda, and has allowed the U.S. to engage in drone strikes against al Qaeda targets. Saleh, meanwhile, has refused to step down before presidential elections in 2013.