The former endowment minister Hamoud Al-Hitar has called the Yemeni government to engage in dialogue with Al-Qaeda militants who are currently fighting the Yemeni army in Abyan.
He further urged the government to not allow foreign military interventions in Yemen, pointing out that they US attacks strengthen radicalization.
Al-Hitar ,who served as the head of a dialogue committee tasked with conducting dialogue with Al-Qaeda militants from 2002 to 2006, issued a fatwa against suicide bombings.
He condemned the suicide bombing that killed about 100 soldiers and wounded hundreds others in Sana'a, stressing that the bomber committed a crime that Islam and all other regions forbid.
He urged Yemenis raise awareness about the risks of terrorism and immunize youth against fundamental ideologies. Al-Hitar managed to persuade Al-Qaeda militants to give up violence in the period from 2002 to 2005
In an interview with the state-run Al-Jumhoria newspaper last month, he attributed the expansion of Al-Qaeda in Yemenm to the lack to a serious political approach to combat the terrorism, insecurity Yemen has lately witnessed
Al-Hitar who resigned in protest at crimes committed against peaceful protests in 2011 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.
He 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. "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 the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh" he added.