President Mahdi al-Mashat speaks on commemoration of 1962 Revolution: Yemen is fighting the same enemies today as during the September 26 Revolution

President Mahdi al-Mashat speaks on commemoration of 1962 Revolution: Yemen is fighting the same enemies today as during the September 26 Revolution

President of the Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, on Sunday warned against any violation of Yemen’s legitimate and just demands.

“These demands are just and fair and do not involve any impotence or high ceilings, and also do not require any concessions from anyone,” President Al-Mashat said in a speech he delivered this evening on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the September 26 Revolution that marked the end of the monarchy and the establishment of the Yemeni Arab Republic in 1962.

President Mahdi Al-Mashat held the Saudi-led coalition countries fully responsible for rejecting the demands of the Yemeni people and the complications, escalation or damage that may result locally, regionally and internationally.

He warned the coalition countries and the complicit world of the danger of not cooperating in meeting the demands of Sana’a, as they “represent the legitimate human rights of the Yemeni people.”

President Al-Mashat pointed out that “talking about peace and security is of no value without respecting the rights of the Yemeni people,” stressing that the continued siege on the Yemeni people and depriving them of their wealth represents a major obstacle on the path to peace and confidence-building.

“Yemen today is facing a fierce war from the same external parties that fought the September 26 Revolution, and this is evidence of the long-running conspiracy against the dreams and hopes of Yemenis,” he said.

President Al-Mashat added that the external forces had worked against any project that would restore the September 26 Revolution, and did not allow achieving its goals topped by the building of an independent state and a strong army.

He referred that “Since the September 26 Revolution, through President Ibrahim Hamdi’s period, and up until the September 21 Revolution, Yemen has been targeted to keep it weak and dependent on the aggressor outside.”

President Al-Mashat noted that “all the evildoers of the past and the present met in the trench of external aggression against the country, and in return all the free men met in the trench of defending freedom and independence.”

He called on the free journalists and the honourable revolutionaries to “stand together against the lies of traitors and those who promote falsehood and misleading.”

The September 26 Revolution broke out in 1962, when a revolutionary movement rose up against the monarchy and demanded the establishment of a republic. The ensuing civil war would take eight years, for a major part due to the royalists receiving significant support from Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, Israel and imperial Iran, as well as contingents of mercenaries from countries like Belgium and France.

The revolutionary movement was supported by Egypt under Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Soviet Union and, after 1969, Libya. The official victory of the revolutionary forces in 1970 brought about the establishment of the Yemen Arab Republic, which ruled northern Yemen until Yemeni reunification in 1990.

The National Salvation Government of Yemen in Sana’a and its supporters see the 2014 September 21 Revolution as a direct continuation of the Republican revolutionary movement of 1962.