Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has confirmed that his government is receiving support from Saudi Arabia for the so-called security matters.

Saudi Arabia is supporting Yemen's “unity, security and stability,” Saleh said in a recent interview with the Arab MBC channel.

"Riyadh is standing by our side. It has provided us with a useful and considerable amount of funds for the development of Yemen," the president noted, according to the 'Farsnews' translation of his comments.

Saleh, meanwhile, denied that Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi administration was interfering in Yemen and its military campaign in the Shia-populated north.

This is as the Houthi fighters, who are resisting a government offensive in the north, say that Sana'a marginalizes Shias, who make up nearly half of Yemen's population, and denies them their basic rights since it is allied with the Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists, who consider Shias heretics.

The Houthis have repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia of fighting on the side of Sana'a government, a charge Riyadh denies.

The Yemeni president acknowledged that there were no links between Houthi fighters and the al-Qaeda network that carries out terrorist attacks in the southern parts of the country, but claimed that the two groups support one another.

Although Saleh clarified that Sana's does not accuse the Iranian government of interfering in the conflict, he claimed that some Iranian sources were supporting the Houthis, based on “confessions” obtained from arrested members of the group.

He said that the war in the northern province of Sa'adah was not a regional military conflict as Yemen would not allow its territories to become what some may call a battle between the Saudi Kingdom and Iran.

Despite expressing his doubt about the whole idea, the president also accused Iran of trying to establish a Shia strip between Yemen and Saudi Arabia to threaten the Arab kingdom.

Meanwhile, a Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdussalam told Farsnews that Saleh was making such accusations against Tehran to attract more financial support from Riyadh.

"The government has yielded full control to Riyadh because of its budget deficit and the shortage of financial resources that it currently faces," he explained.

MJ/MB