Terrorism in Yemen is transforming from an extremist ideology into a dirty political game, to become a marketable trump card, where many parties at home and abroad have mastered playing this card and bargaining with it to achieve political gains sometimes and blackmail the international community, in order for obtaining financial rewards under the pretext of fighting terrorism at other times.

Terrorism in Yemen has been politically employed, and this is what events and their details have revealed for more than two decades, where the Yemeni arena has turned into a theater for practicing dirty games and a field for conducting experiments with various criminal roles and cheap blackmail practiced by many forces and reaped its fruits and achieved many material and political gains from it through transforming the terrorism into a pressure card and an old renewable scarecrow.

The late President Ali Abdullah Saleh was the most prominent player on this card despite its danger. In spite of his exaggerations and repeated warnings through many of his speeches about the growing influence of the Al Qaeda Organization in the Yemeni territories, much of the identical information revealed the facilities and support that the terrorist organization was received by the Ali Saleh regime and its security authority, in order for bringing in huge sums of money, as well as to present himself as a partner in fighting terrorism.

In an exclusive interview with a former member of the Al-Qaeda Organization, Ayman Deen, the Sputnik News Agency revealed the relationship between former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Al-Qaeda Organization.

Dean mentioned that the late president was asking the Al-Qaeda Organization to increase terrorist operations in his country in order to obtain more money to combat terrorism, where the United States had allocated a huge budget to combat terrorism in Yemen.

According to media sources, who documented the confessions of a former Al-Qaeda Organization activist, who later turned into an informant for the Yemeni government, revealing what he says are the hidden secrets of the ousted Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's relationship with the Al-Qaeda Organization.

The former leader of Al Qaeda Organization, Hani Mujahid, confirms that Ali Saleh was supporting and directing the Al Qaeda Organization branch in Yemen and that he was practicing what he called a "double game."

Mujahid adds that the nephew of the ousted Yemeni president, Colonel Ammar Muhammad Abdullah Saleh, is the security official who was behind his employment as an informant, and he confirmed that this colonel had arranged arrangements to ensure that explosive materials reached Qasim al-Raymi, the military leader of the Al-Qaeda Organization in the Arabian Peninsula.

According to a report issued by the Abaad Studies and Research Center, it referred to events related to personalities in the security apparatus of President Saleh's regime, who contributed directly and indirectly to the control of Abyan and Radaa by the Al-Qaeda Organization.

The report stated that “when the Al-Qaeda Organization entered Zanzibar in April 2011 and captured the Central Security Camp without a fight. And the commander of this camp (Colonel Adel Muhammad Rashad al-Masri), the nephew of the Minister of Interior at the time, Major General Mutahar Rashad al-Masri, was supposed to be investigated at that time. On November 25, 2011, a day after the Yemeni president signed the Gulf Initiative, the minister al-Masry issued a decree appointing his relative as director of the Criminal Investigation Office in Radaa, and then this person managed to be the first security official in the region. And then this colonel managed to be the first security official in the region, where during the period of his security control of the city, Al Qaeda Organization came and entered the city of Radaa in the same way that it entered the city of Zanzibar."

This role did not stop with the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, rather than the file with its sensitivity moved to the hands of the Houthi coup militia, which was also the creation of Ali Saleh. Through this card, he played the same role he played with the Al-Qaeda Organization's card, where he was the official sponsor, supporter and inspirer for it for more than two decades.

Since its coup against the legitimate government in 2014, the Houthi militia has appeared as if it is a natural extension of the regime of the deposed president, where coordination has been evident beyond any doubt between the two sides of terrorism in Yemen, the Al-Qaeda Organization on the one hand and the Houthi militia on the other.

In August of this year, the official spokesman for the Yemeni army, Brigadier General Abdo Mujalli, said that there is a relationship of coordination and integration between the Houthi militia and terrorist organizations, foremost of which the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Al-Qaeda Organization, stressing that these organizations opened the roads for the Houthis in al-Baydha and facilitated their passage.

In press statements, Mujalli added that the Houthis' talk of waging battles against the Al-Qaeda Organization and the Islamic State ISIS is in order for marketing themselves that they are fighting terrorism, trying to deny their relationship with these terrorist organizations, noting that the Houthis are a rebel terrorist group that coordinates and works with the Islamic State ISIS and the Al-Qaeda Organization to kill the Yemeni people.

The Yemeni Minister of Information, Muammar al-Eryani, confirms that the Houthi militia has not fought any significant battles with terrorist elements since its coup against the state until today and that these militias advanced in the battles of Qaifah Radaa with their heavy equipment and crews towards the sites of the National Army and the Resistance and members of tribes who support the legitimacy with the coordination and facilitation of ISIS and the Al-Qaeda Organization without a single shot being fired between the two parties.

Al-Eryani added, saying that the Houthi militia released a number of terrorist elements from the Political Security prison after it took control of the capital, Sana'a, including a number of leaders of the Al-Qaeda Organization based on understandings had been previously done, where they released twenty terrorist elements, including 16 Al-Qaeda Organization's members and 4 others from the terrorist organization ISIS on November 13, 2018.

In December 2019, the militia released 6 al-Qaeda elements. In the middle of this year 2020, it also released three of the most dangerous elements of the terrorist organization involved in the assassination of the Saudi diplomat, Khaled Subaitan al-Anzi, in the capital Sana'a on November 28, 2012, in addition to their involvement in a number of terrorist operations.

On April 22, 2020, the militia released 43 Al-Qaeda Organization's members of different nationalities from its prisons in the capital, Sanaa and the Al-Saleh city, including Abdullah al-Minhali, who was arrested in a special operation in Halfoun in Hadhramawt governorate in exchange for carrying out terrorist operations targeting the Arab Alliance and disturbing security and stability in Aden, the interim capital.

With every security tampering or terrorist act that occurs in Yemeni society, the Yemeni Islah Party used to renew its rejection and condemnation of terrorism in all its forms, expressing its civilization, peaceful approach, moderate approach and clear vision. However, the Party has been severely damaged because of its steadfast position and this cost him exorbitant prices and he is still paying its bill until today.

The Islah Party's repeated condemnations of violence and its expression of its rejection of terrorism in all its forms and under any name, its rejection of acts that violate security, its demand to abide by the constitution and the law and the obligation of all to it, and the promotion of the values of moderation, tolerance and coexistence between human beings, all of this has led to becoming targeted by militant groups, which it classifies it as a formidable enemy and a stumbling block in front of its destructive projects.

According to a statement issued by the Yemeni Islah Party in Aden in 2018, the number of violations committed against it reached 22, including 9 assassinations, 4 cases of arrests and enforced disappearances, 5 operations of burning and storming of the Party's headquarters, and 4 raids of homes belonging to leaders and activists of the Party.

The Islah Party lost many of its leaders, symbols and activists in the governorate, the most prominent of which was the leader Awad Fadaaq, and Mr. Shawqi Kamadi, head of the Organization and Rehabilitation Department, who is also the imam and preacher of the Al-Thuwar Mosque in al-Mualla.

The governorate of Taiz is also not less bad in terms of the rate of assassinations and crimes committed against leaders and cadres of the Yemeni Islah Party, where during the past six years, where the governorate has been witnessed an increase in terrorist operations that targeted many leaders and activists of the Islah Party, the most prominent of which was the prominent leader, Sadiq Mansour, Assistant Secretary-General of the Yemeni Islah Party.

The Islahis in the Dhamar Governorate, even if they were safe from the oppressive heat of the Al-Qaeda Organization, the Houthi militia’s fire swallow them with its terror and systematic crimes, where the hand of the Houthi terrorism has targeted prominent leaders and members who were known for their moderation. And perhaps the most prominent of those included in the assassinations is the head of the Islah Party branch in the Al Hada Directorate, Abdul Razzaq al-Sarari, Mr. Saleh Al-Anhami, a member of the Islah Party’s Shura Council in the Dhamar Governorate, the head of the Party’s Shura Council in the governorate, Hassan al-Yaeeri, and a member of the Party’s Shura Council, Ali Al-Ansi.

The civilization and moderation of the Islah party made it a target for militias that only believe in violence and terrorism as a way to achieve their goals, as it was hit by terrorism and criminality before others, and as a result of these attacks, it lost many of its leaders and cadres between assassinations, abductions and liquidations, in addition to storming the headquarters, closing institutions belonging to it, confiscating property and storming homes belonging to its leaders and members, looting and detonating them, the most prominent of which the house of the Sheikh Mansour al-Haniq, a member of the Islah Party and a member of Parliament, the house of Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Emad, a member of the Islah Party Shura, and the house of Sheikh al-Hassan Abkar, and the house of Mr. Sheikhan al-Dubaee, Assistant Secretary-General, and the house of Mr. Adel Rowhani, and the house of the head of the parliamentary bloc of the Yemeni Islah Party, and other attacks.