A week after his first field speech, Yemeni Brigadier Tareq Saleh appeared once again to give a new speech from a training camp set up west of the internationally-recognized government temporary capital, Aden.
Brig Saleh, who is the nephew of slain Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, gave his speech on the occasion of a new brigade joining his forces fighting off Iran-backed Houthi militias under the name Popular National Resistance.
Broadcast on Wednesday evening by Yemen's Al-Watan television channel, Brig Saleh welcomed new force members who arrived in the city of Aden.
In his speech, he praised the people of Aden, who he said they “embraced all the men who came from different provinces”
He said that former coup allies that were accepted back into pro-legitimacy ranks helped in driving Houthi militias from many areas.
He also praised army efforts, popular resistance undertakings and Arab coalition support which freed much of southern Yemen from coupist militias.
The Yemeni Republican Guards Brig. Saleh said that he is “preparing for the post-Hodeidah-battle,” and will continue to advance until the Houthi capital at Sanaa is retaken.
Brig. Saleh made sure that his speech united all Yemeni forces facing Houthi militias nationwide.
“I salute all the men who make precious and generous sacrifices with their blood in order to liberate this good and pure land -- the homeland of all Yemenis-- and restore its independent free state ruled by a republican democratic system with Sanaa as its capital and no other,” he said.
Clarifying controversy over military operations coming to a halt at the key port city of Hodeidah’s outskirts, as international efforts imposed further pressure and insisted on striking an agreement with coupist militias, Saleh said freeing the city is a matter of time.
“It is a matter of time to prove to the world that this gang (Iran-backed Houthi militias) does not want peace and wants only to rise to power by the force of arms.”
“They (Houthis) are shedding Yemeni blood everywhere for what they self-proclaim a divine right,” he said.
“They impose their logic on their people and teach them compulsively in official institutions," added, in reference to Iranian-imposed curricula on the population, universities and schools under Houthi control.