The former Minister of Endowment and Guidance and the head of a dialogue committee tasked with conducting dialogue with Al-Qaeda militants has called for an inclusive national strategy to combat terrorism in Yemen.
In an interview with the state-run Al-Jomhoria Newsapaper, Hamouid Al-Hitar who persuaded Al-Qaeda militants to give up violence in the period from 2002 to 2005 affirmed that Al-Qaeda in Yemen is merely 10 percent of what was painted by medial outlets.
He attributed the expansion of Al-Qaeda power to the lack to a serious political approach to combat the terrorism, insecurity Yemen has lately witnessed, some governorates are not under the control of the state since three years, and the lack to education that immunize youth against fundamental ideologies.
He further said that Al-Qaeda was propped up with the aim of distorting the image of the peaceful struggle in the South and the peaceful uprising that broke out in 2011, hinting that some official of the former regime headed by Ali Abdullah Saleh want to turn Yemen to another Somalia.
Al-Hitar who resigned in protest at crimes committed against peafowl protests in 2011 accused some military and security leaders of cooperating with Al-Qaeda, stressing that they provided the organization with weapons and ordnance in Rada of Baida and Zinjibar and Jaar of Abyan.
He said that Ansar Al-Shariah (supporters of the Islamic Law) is a mixture comprised of Al-Qaeda militants, elements of the armed Southern Movement and supporters of Saleh.
He stressed that there are dissimilarities between Al-Qaeda and Ansar Al-Shariah, pointing out that the former only target non-Muslim persons and Western interests and that they do not attack Muslims or looting their properties, and that the latter target both.
He cited that there was cooperation between the former regime and Al-Qaeda, reiterating that some relatives of Saleh personally contacted with Al-Qaeda operatives and hampered the completion of investigation on the case of USS Cole.