Yemeni president asks Muslim states to send fighters to Gaza

Jan 17, 2009, 10:12 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Saturday called on Muslim countries to allow their citizens to serve as volunteer fighters alongside Palestinian militants against the Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, the state Saba news agency reported.

Saleh, who made the call during a meeting with an Iranian envoy in Sana'a, also called for a summit for leaders of Muslim countries to be convened to discuss the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the agency said.

'President Saleh called upon Muslim countries to open the door for volunteers to help render their brothers in Palestine victorious,' the agency said.

It said the Iranian Housing Minister Mohammad Saeedi Kia handed to Saleh a message from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dealing with coordination between their countries towards the crisis in Gaza.

The Yemeni leader did not say whether he would allow volunteer fighters from Yemen to join the war in the Palestinian enclave.

Saleh's call follows a similar appeal made by prominent Yemeni cleric Abdul-Majid al-Zendani, who called on Arab leaders to open camps for training volunteers to fight Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

'Allow your people to volunteer. Allow your people to carry out their duty. Open camps for volunteers,' Abdul-Majeed al-Zendani said in an address to a pro-Palestinian rally in Sana'a on January 5.

He said if training camps are opened in Arab countries, 'millions of youths would join.'