President Saleh urges Muslims to solidify brotherhood on Eid al-Adha
The Source: www.sabanews.net - 7/12/2008
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President Ali Abdullah Saleh delivered on Sunday a speech to the Yemeni
people and the Islamic and Arab nation on the occasion of Eid al-Adha,
or "feast of the sacrifice."
In his speech, President Saleh
highlighted the Islamic nation's need to embody the values and so basic
principles of the Hajj such as unity, solidarity, mutual assistance and
brotherhood.
"These values are the basis to build upon and
advance the nation and the source of its pride and strength to confront
all challenges and risks posed to Islam and Muslims across the world",
he said.
Saleh made reference to the development and further
changes the country witnesses, accentuating that construction,
development and reforms are ongoing to achieve all desired goals of
Yemen in spite of the challenges and difficulties resulting from the
internal conditions, the scarcity of resources and a steady increase in
the proportion or the consequences of the global financial crisis and
the sharp drop in Yemen's overall oil production and in its price
internationally.
He voiced his satisfaction over what have
been accomplished in his electoral platform and its goals topped by
reinforcing the independence of the judiciary, improving the local
councils' experience through expansion of their powers and holding
elections for governors' posts in addition to preparations needed to
transit successfully into a system of broad-power local governance.
"Moreover,
the achievements made in the fight against corruption and the promotion
of transparency and good governance were showed through the
establishment of the Supreme National Authority for Combating
Corruption, the Tenders Committee, the issuance of the financial
disclosure law, the activation of control and auditing bodies and other
measures aimed at building the constitutional institutions of the
country, enforcing law and order and expanding popular participation,
the rights of freedom of opinion and expression and women's
participation in power structures and decision-making", Saleh said.
He
lauded the grand success achieved in the first preparatory step of the
coming parliamentary election, pointing the stage of the revise and
amendment of the voters' lists which taken place last month.
The
President considered the vigorous interaction of the Yemeni people to
register themselves in the voters' lists in accordance with the law as
"an evidence of the high level of democratic consciousness of our
people and its keenness on exercise their electoral rights".
"Our
people have expressed full adherence to democracy as a national option"
for constructing and developing the country and it is the only way to
realize the principle of a peaceful rotation of power.
Speaking
on regional and international issues, President Saleh warned of growing
risks of growing the activities of piracy and terrorism, stressing the
need for much more concerted regional and international efforts to be
combined for reducing the emerging threats to the regional and
international security, stability and peace.
He renewed his
call to accelerate the formation of an international anti- piracy
force, in coordination with the Red Sea-overlooking states and under
the sponsorship of the UN, to encounter the escalating piracy in the
international waters off the Somali coasts in the Arab Sea and Indian
Ocean.
He also called for the necessity of assisting Somalia
to reinstate its security, stability and reconstruct its institutions,
saying "it is the right way to put an end to lawlessness case in
Somalia, to tackle the phenomenon of piracy and to prevent turning
Somalia into a hotbed for the export of terrorism and destabilization
to the region".
"We need to redouble the regional and
international efforts for collective action to combat terrorism in all
its forms and manifestations and dry up its sources of funding",
President Saleh said.
The President voiced his deep sorrow
over the unjust Israeli siege on the Palestinian people suffering in
the Gaza Strip. The siege is imposed a year ago.
He strongly
reprehended "the shameful silence of all international bodies on this
tragedy" and their gross inability to do anything to save the
Palestinian children, women and men suffering from hunger, diseases and
the suffocating siege.
Saleh said the United Nations should
play its human and ethical role and employ its advantages
responsibilities to end the severe tragedy the people besieged in the
Gaza Strip suffer, demanding the UN "to use force against Israel in
accordance with article VII of the UN Charter to end its unjust siege
and abide by decisions of the international legitimacy".
"The
resolutions of international legitimacy should be applied under the
same standards on everyone and away from the double standard policy
that makes Israel safe from accountability at its open defiance of
those resolutions, committing crimes and inhuman abuses against the
unarmed Palestinian people", Saleh emphasized.
President Saleh
called Palestinians, including all tendencies or various political
factions, particularly the rivals Fatah and Hamas, to overcome the
disagreements and divisions, urging them to heal the Palestinian rift
and strengthen their national unity to serve the interests of the
Palestinian people and to gain their legitimate rights, especially the
right to establish their independent state on their national soil with
al-Quds as its capital.
In conclusion, the President called
all Muslims to make this holy religious occurrence and the opportunity
of Eid al-Adha an event to strengthen trust and love between Muslims
across the World.
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