(JTA) — Yemen’s president blamed Israel for planning and funding protests in several Arab states.
"There is an operations rooms in Tel Aviv with the aim of destabilizing the Arab world," Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh reportedly said Tuesday during a speech at Sanaa University. He said that the operations room is "run by the White House."
"The wave of political unrest sweeping across the Arab world is a conspiracy that serves Israel and the Zionists," he also said.
Yemen has been the site of anti-regime protests for the last two weeks, one of several Arab countries in which protestors have attempted or succeeded in deposing their rulers.
Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 32 years, has rejected calls that he step down.
Yemeni opposition leaders rejected an offer for a unity government on Monday. Some 24 people have died in the violence.
Saleh has promised to step down when his term ends in 2013 and that his son would not seek the top job.
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