President Saleh pledges to prepare for free presidential elections

SANA’A, August 29 (Saba)- A speech was delivered by President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Saudi capital Riyadh on the occasion of the Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,

As we celebrate the advent of the Eid al-Fitr, I would like to wish you and all the Arab and Muslim nation sincere congratulations and the greatest of blessings on this special religious occasion.

We pray to God to bestow mercy and forgiveness on those who were martyred in the criminal, treacherous attack that targeted the presidential palace mosque. We pray to God to have mercy on the nation's martyr Abdul-Aziz Abdul-Ghani, the head of the Shoura Council. His death was a painful tragedy to us and the nation at large.

The fasting month has passed; it was filled with great spiritual values but was characterized by a hazy atmosphere due to the interrelated crises dominating Yemen. However, we praise God for granting us success and optimism even in the presence of negative and hostile stances adopted by a few weak-minded individuals and prisoners of hate and malice, who did not respect the religious duty of fasting and were inconsiderate of the feelings of those who are fasting. Unfortunately, they did not care about the fasting month and decided to continue carrying out sabotage acts and aggression.

It was something expected from the few disrupters who are not accustomed to living in peace, away from deception and conflicts. They did not respect the sanctities and instead committed the most dangerous and atrocious crimes during this holy month, including attacks on military camps, public institutions, soldiers, officers, and citizens in Abyan, Taiz, Arhab, Nehm, and other areas.

Even though, they failed to reach their malignant goals, they were able to disturb the lives of the citizens during the holy month of Ramadan. The government was able to overcome many of the difficulties that they created and confront the sabotage acts that they crafted, including blocking roads, disabling services, and attacking economic and service facilities.

The thanks for confronting the sabotage acts first goes to Almighty God and second to the proud struggling, steadfast, and loyal people who cooperated with the competent services, namely the Armed Forces and the security. We also appreciate the actions of the loyal responsible men in all official positions in both the central and the local authorities who continued to carry out and perform their duties during all circumstances, challenges, and risks.

On the occasion of the blessed Eid al-Fitr, we wish that our people attain a new evolutionary leap in their public, political, and economic lives, which can be achieved by overcoming the aggravated crisis. This could be accomplished if everyone unites around the principles of the Eid al-Fitr which include forgiveness, unity, tolerance, dialogue, conciliation, and mending fences within the Yemeni families.

We should all put an end to the actions of the incited subversive few, whose actions almost destroyed the purpose of the opposition and slander the democratic life.

We should all unite against those who seek to disrupt the democratic life in the country, change the civilized characteristics of constitutional legitimacy, and ignore its role in protecting the modern Yemeni state and the new pluralistic Yemeni society.

We are all capable in the shortest time possible to find many constitutional solutions that would help us overcome this critical stage in our people's history, which is posing a threat on our unity, freedom, and democracy. This can be accomplished by supporting the national role of Vice President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi and move forward in the path that he started, especially that there is a lot of points of agreement that have been achieved.

It is required from everyone to sit around the dialogue table and continue what they started, while maintaining a fresh national spirit and keeping in mind the lessons from previous events. This should be done to get rid of all criminals, fail the conspirators' plans that target Yemen's unity, freedom, democracy, security, and stability, and achieve the aspirations of the people, namely the youth, by achieving evolution, change, abolishing corruption, and all the rooting out the reasons behind conflicts and strife.

The road ahead become clearer when we set our priorities straight to implement the future steps, starting from respecting the constitution and complying with the duties to maintain constitutional legitimacy which is the essence of the existence of the modern Yemeni nation.

The absence of constitutional legitimacy will lead to disorientation, fragmentation, descend to the abyss, and the spread of civil war, which the unjust, backward forces, the deluded coup-seekers, and those with straying thoughts and sick ideologies seek.

They believe that through this path they can reach authority. All the facts of today and tomorrow prove that the only way for the people to achieve their dreams and aspirations, and attain salvation and advancements is through holding on to freedom, exercising democracy, and resorting to the will of the people and their choices.

Following a month of expressing devotion to God, after the national conscious was awakened, and after investing in the psychological, faithful, intellectual, and spiritual gains from this holy month, in addition to the spirit of love, and optimism attained from the Eid al-Fitr days, we strongly and willingly call on the people to move forward in the right direction under one national banner with desired national reconciliation as its main pillar.

We, Yemenis, hold the right and proper knowledge of what is best for the people and the nation at large, and enjoy all the capabilities and drive that will push us forward to accomplish our goals. These characteristics will help us reach the desired goals according to a timetable so as we would be able to properly implement and greatly accomplish in accordance to the specified time frame to accomplish the required legal and constitutional measures.

We will not allow the interrelated crises to triumph over the solutions and prevent those with conscious minds, among the wise and faithful, from implementing those solutions. We will not allow the crises to impede the clear vision that we announced and abided by in previous initiatives, including the GCC initiative, and the Security Council statement.

We will move forward and carry out the deferred legal and constitutional duties as soon as possible and prepare for free, direct, and general presidential elections.

In this regards, we have assigned a committee from the General People's Congress to communicate with the leading figures of the Joint Meeting Parties, the GCC foreign ministers, and the ambassadors of the United States and the European Union to set an implementation mechanism for the GCC initiative and sign it without any delays.

Simultaneously, we plan on implementing all the decisions made during the upcoming comprehensive national dialogue so as to protect the utmost interests of the people and the nation, and bring to life all the people's aspirations for change and reform.

Furthermore, we seek to unite the ranks to support the armed forces and the security for the purpose of fighting terrorism and eradicating it, for it is considered one of the most dangerous challenges facing security, stability, construction, and development in the Republic of Yemen.

Terrorism is the reason behind the destruction of services, economic, and developmental facilities, and destabilizing life across Yemeni cities and governorates. Furthermore, it is preventing the execution of investment projects in Yemen. The persistence of criminal acts here and there aggravated damages on national economy, which increased unemployment, inflation, and poverty.

What is needed today is moving forward to achieve partnership for national unity that seeks to build the future.

This is what dialogue can lead us to, and what right faith, and Yemeni wisdom requires us to do. The ones who care about Yemen along with the brothers and friends of Yemen, and believe in the wisdom of the Yemeni friends and brothers are betting on.

We look forward with hope, trust, and loyalty that everyone triumphs so as to benefit the higher interest of the nation, the people, and the honest, national principles of the brothers.

We should do that as part of the duties and responsibilities of citizenship and to translate the spirit of love in God and the nation.

The faithful and wise people and their modern state, along with its constitution, laws, and regulations are all based on faith and the path of the Shariah.

Nobody has the right to overbid us or our people in the name of the true religion

Back then, they were leading the Islamic Conquest Corps which spread Islam across the globe, for that reason nobody can question the power of the Yemeni faith and their devotion until Judgment Day.

The traders of principles and religions and those who attack religious scholars and the society's beliefs should stop their injustice and return to the righteous path, for they have distorted the pure image of Islam and the Islamic peoples.

Unfortunately, they have also made the Arabs and Muslims everywhere subjects of accusations and have made the Muslim countries to be an easy target for conspiracies, foreign interference, and neo-colonial invasions.

The virtues and goodness of the month of fasting are sufficient to develop a new spirit for Muslims in addition to a strong will armed with clear certainty that aims at doing good deeds and charity and purging oneself of all the evils of grudges and the sickness of avarice and illegal possessions.

The obligation of fasting was never a way to polish the image of Muslim societies. The higher goal of fasting is enforcing the strength of these societies by deepening their connection to God and His piety and to the sublime Islamic values and guidance that are based on brotherhood, equality, love, cooperation, integration, and competition on doing virtuous and pious deeds.

Allow me in conclusion of this statement to extend my sincere heartfelt congratulations on this precious occasion to the brave heroes of the armed forces and security services who are performing the holy duty of protecting the gains and achievements and maintaining security and stability. They are performing their responsibility in all conditions and circumstances and are carrying out the difficult assignment of confronting all the elements of terrorism, sabotage, outlaws, and corruptors. On this occasion and at all times, we salute the decent and loyal citizens who support the armed forces and security in defending the gains of the people and the homeland, on top of which are freedom, democracy, development, maintaining constitutional legitimacy, achieving security and stability, and restoring peace of mind to citizens nationwide so that security, stability, and social peace may prevail.

Have a blessed Eid and may the peace and mercy of God be upon you.