Report: New Israeli tourism group from Addis Ababa to Sanaa

Well-informed sources in Sanaa told the London-based al-Hayat daily that an Israeli tourism group arrived in Sanaa on Thursday afternoon from Addis Ababa on board a plane from the Ethiopian airlines.

Yemeni security forces did not disclose the number of members of this Jewish group, which is surrounded by tough and secret security measures, out of fears of reactions.

Sources in Sanaa stated that these tourists came from Tel Aviv via Addis Ababa.

This second visit of its kind comes just one day after the Yemeni opposition parties, foremost being the Yemeni Coalition for Reform and the Socialist Party, condemned the facilities given by the Yemeni government to Israeli tourists and considered this as a "treason to national and Islamic stances and principles," saying it is a "step towards Yemen's normalization of relations with Israel."

Just two days ago, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh stressed in Washington that there is nothing which prevents Jews from all parts of the world from being tourists in Yemen and that the embargo is valid on Jews who carry Israeli passports.

One week ago a Jewish tourist group of 12 persons, including two rabbis and two persons working in the Israeli press, most of them of Yemeni origin, left Sanaa.

Western sources in Sanaa stated that the new tourists group, including businessmen, run tourism offices in Tel Aviv and that many of them are of Yemeni origin and they have entered Yemen by special and temporary visas offered by one of the Yemeni embassies.