Yemeni president denies transferring Yemeni Jews to Israel

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has denied that there is an operation to transfer Yemeni Jews to Israel. The operation was supposedly called Besat al-Reih (wind carpet).

In a statement to the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am issued on Monday, Saleh said "We do not know about Jews who moved from Yemen to Israel. The Yemeni Jews are treated as citizens, and they have freedom of movement to all countries in the world. This is a right guaranteed by the constitution for all Yemeni citizens."

The Yemeni President added that there is no collective migration by the Yemeni Jews, because their number does not exceed 400.

"I have met a group of them four months ago. The Yemeni Rabbi told me that he went to Jordan and from there he headed to Israel for treatment with the belief that the Jews will treat him. To his regret, he found the Jews are racist. They did not respect him. He was not treated. Rather, he returned to Yemen with a bad impression about Israel," Saleh said.