Yemen reiterates refusal to establish relations with Israel

The speaker of the Yemeni Parliament, Abdullah al-Ahmar, has reiterated his country's opposition to establishing relations with Israel until a just and comprehensive peace is achieved in the region, a peace that can bring back the lands and rights to their owners.

Sheikh al-Ahmar, who is taking part in the conference of the Arab Parliamentary Union currently being held in Algiers, said in a statement to the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily that Yemen's position is clear in that there is no "normalization with Israel until after liberating the full occupied Arab lands and after the Palestinian people restore all their rights and establish their own independent state with Jerusalem as a capital.