Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh said in an interview broadcast today that he had rejected "millions of dollars" Saudi Arabia offered him if he stood up to the Shiite rebels.
"They told us 'we'll pay you millions of dollars if you ally with us'" against the Huthis, Saleh told the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen television channel, adding that he rejected the offer.
"We will not let go of the Huthis," he said.
He said the former Saudi ambassador in Yemen "came to me with a message from the kingdom asking me to stand by (fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour) Hadi and the Muslim Brotherhood... Against the Huthis."
"I told them I support national unity for all political forces in Yemen," he said.
"Our difference with the Huthis... Was administrative, not ideological," he said, speaking of his regime's nine wars with the rebels in their northern regions.
He accused the Sunni-ruled kingdom of seeking to sow "sedition" in Yemen, and said its "hatred" for the Huthis was "sectarian".
But "sooner or later we will hold talks with Saudi Arabia," he said.
Saleh himself belongs to the Iran-backed Huthis' Zaidi offshoot of Shiite Islam.
The former strongman, who ruled Yemen for three decades before being forced out after a year-long popular uprising, insisted: "I will not accept power for myself or my son" Ahmed, who led the elite Republican Guard troops during his rule.
The interview took place in the rebel-held capital Sanaa.
Saleh accused Hadi, who sought refuge in Riyadh after rebels closed down on his last southern refuge, Aden, of having "left power to the Huthis and fled".
