A,otamar.net Google news - Sana'a - A senior Iranian diplomat arrived in Yemen's capital Sana'a on Monday for talks with officials on Iran's alleged support for Al-Houthi rebel group fighting army troops in the northern province of Saada, Yemeni officials said.
The officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Jalal Fairoozna, who heads the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Gulf department, would hand a message from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to his Yemeni counterpart Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The Iranian envoy was also to hold meetings with senior Yemeni government officials on claims that Iran provides financial aid to the outlawed 'Believing Youth' group, whose armed followers are stuck in mountain strongholds in the northern province of Saada, some 230 kilometres north of Sana'a.
Authorities in Sana'a have sent army troops to quell the rebellion and to put an end to the fighting that escalated last December in the province bordering Saudi Arabia.
Yemeni officials have recently made public remarks accusing Iran and Libya of backing Yemen's rebels and funnelling money to them to buy weapons.
On May 12, Yemen recalled its ambassadors to Iran and Libya for consultations over the alleged support for the rebels.
Libya has said it had only tried to mediate between the rebels and the Yemeni government, while Iran denounced the accusations as 'irresponsible allegations.'
Fighting first broke out after Hussein Badruddin al-Houthi established the Believing Youth movement in March 2004. In September the same year, Hussein was killed in clashes with the army.
Yemeni officials have said the rebels wanted to topple the regime and re-establish the royal regime that was ousted by the 1962 revolution.
Waves of bloody confrontations between the rebels and army troops since mid-2004 have left around 1,800 government troops dead, according to official figures. An estimated 800 rebels were killed.