Arab Pundits Point Fingers After Killing of Yemen’s Ex-President

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Ali Waked

TEL AVIV — Social media in the Arab world has been raging over the killing of former president of Yemen Abdullah Salah, who was deposed by his allies, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The  majority of social media users chose to lash out at Iran despite anger at Salah, who used to be an ally of the Houthis. Some blamed other parties and countries.

Moussa al-Omar, a Syrian journalist affiliated with the opposition, wasn’t sympathetic over the death of deposed president Salah.

“Ali Abdullah Salah is a tyrant like Qaddafi and Bashar Assad,” he posted on Twitter. “He let out Khamenei’s dogs, who don’t make up more than 1% of the good-hearted Yemenites. Unfortunately, he wasn’t killed by the Yemenites, but by the enemies of Islam and the people. The tyrants have always been a bridge for invaders.”

Media outlets and other elements opposed to Qatar accused the Qataris of involvement in the killing and blamed the Al Jazeera network for allegedly doing an about face and supporting the Houthis.

Saudi journalist Ali al-Maliki responded to the killing by speaking directly to Al Jazeera, which he referred to as “pig.”

“One day ago, I wrote this, pig,” he posted along with a screenshot of a tweet from a day before Salah’s death in which he claimed to have “proof that the terrorist regime in Qatar has ordered the Houthis to attack Salah’s presidential palace and kill him and his people. And there are still asses who call the Qatari regime brothers.”

https://twitter.com/alsarrm1/status/937692213416480775

One of the Syrian opposition’s Twitter accounts also attacked Al Jazeera, writing, “You’ve turned into the Shi’ite infidel’s journal.”

https://twitter.com/811Syria/status/937655998717800448

Saudi poet Majed al-Majali attacked the Arab regimes and their policies, writing, “The stupid Arab regimes made their policies easy on Iran and saved them 90% of the effort to take control of the territories taken by Iran.”

“Ali Abdullah Salah was killed in a very unfortunate death,” posted the Saudi account Military Saudi. “The Yemenite revolution hoped and desired a positive approach from him and even extended its hand and heart to him. But he chose to go with the Houthis, so they murdered him in their first quarrel just as gangs do.”

Saudi blogger and academic Ibrahim al-Obailan blamed the Muslim Brotherhood for the deterioration of the Arab world, writing, “The forces of change and revolution in the Arab world, especially the Muslim Brotherhood and the communists, are the source of suffering and destruction in the Arab world and just as they were destroyed, so too will the Iranian project be destroyed and the future will prove this.”

But Saudi opposition figure Abdullah al-Gamedi criticized the Saudi regime over Salah’s death, writing, “We remind you that the Saud family (the royal family) had a hand in strengthening the Iranian project in Yemen.”

“This is the policy of terrorist Iran and terrorist Hezbollah in Arab countries, either you’re on their side or your fate is death,” wrote Syrian activist Abou Jaafar al-Magarbel.

“The killing of Salah by his former allies is the natural result for someone who bowed his head to the terrorist Iranian regime and then tried to rebel against this same regime,” posted Sultan al-Ameemi, a journalist from the United Arab Emirates. “Will the regime in Qatar understand the danger of its partnership with the Iranian regime?”

Egyptian journalist and documentary director Asaad Taha summed up the situation, simply saying, “A criminal murdered a criminal.”

 

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