Erdoğan: Turkey Will Stand With Israel In Yemen Civil War To Curb Iranian Threat And Annihilate Their Presence

KABUL: (Middle East Press) Selahattin Demirtaş, the charismatic opposition leader of left-wing Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) divulged the minute details of a meeting between Yemeni Health Minister Nasser Baoun and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan where the latter received a handwritten message from his Yemeni counterpart, the resigned President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi who heads a government in exile in Saudi Arabia.

In the message which was delivered by Mr. Nasser Baoun, the Yemeni Minister of Public Health and Population, President Hadi— a Saudi protégé— sent his best regards to Turkish leadership and addressed the bilateral relations between the two administrations and means to boost them in various fields.

According to Mr. Demirtaş, the Yemeni President has allegedly appreciated Turkish efforts in supporting Sunni fanatic militias, namely al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which are in alliance with Hadi government in their fight against their common enemy, the pro-Iranian Ansarullah movement.

“Regarding the Iranian encroachment near the Bab al-Mandab strategic strait, we shall stand with the State of Israel to curb Iranian threat and annihilate their presence in Yemen through their Houthi proxies,” Anadolu Agency quoted President Erdoğan as saying , adding that Iranian Houthi allies aspire to destroy Israel which renders it a common enemy to both nations .

The Yemeni official attending the 5th Islamic Conference of Health Ministers which was held in Istanbul, warmly congratulated President Erdoğan on the landslide victory of Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the recent parliamentary elections and also expressed hope that the ties between the two countries would further develop under the auspices of President Erdoğan.

The Yemeni Health Minister importuned the Turkish President for more consistent logistic support for pro-Hadi militias similar to the policy adopted by Erdoğan in supporting Islamist rebels in Syria. Unverified CIA reports suggest that Turkey plays a key role in facilitating the transport of ISIS sympathizers across European continent to war-ravaged Yemeni port city of Aden, Hadi’s important stronghold.

For his part, the Turkish President voiced his solidarity with the beleaguered President Hadi and underlined Ankara’s firm stance on supporting the pro-Hadi militias in the Yemen’s bitter civil war and invited Mr. Hadi to pay a state visit to Ankara in order to coordinate policies vis-à-vis Iran.