DUBAI, Dec 23, (AFP): Yemeni Shiite rebels are willing to withdraw from Saudi territory in exchange for an end to cross-border attacks by the Saudi military, a rebel spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.
“We are prepared to withdraw from sites if... Saudi Arabia does not attack any one of us from its territory,” said the spokesman, Mohammed Abdel Salam.
On Tuesday, Saudi Deputy Defence Minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan gave Yemeni rebels 24 hours to withdraw from the border village of Al-Jabiri which they are occupying.
“They have 24 hours to surrender, or we will destroy them,” he said.
The rebels mocked the ultimatum in a statement on their website late on Tuesday, asking why Saudi forces had not already moved against the village.
“The question is: what have you been doing these past days?” the statement said.
The rebels’ spokesman said their key grievance against Saudi Arabia was the kingdom’s decision to allow the Yemeni army to use its territory against their positions, a charge Riyadh denies.
“We believe that the essence of the problem with Saudi Arabia is not land or borders, for we faced Yemeni aggression from Saudi Arabia,” Salam said.

“We entered Saudi territory in response to Saudi aggression against Yemen, by its air force and through ground attacks in Saada (province),” he added.
“All we ask for is good neighbourly relations.”
Fighting between Saudi forces and the rebels kicked off on November 3, when the kingdom accused the rebels of killing a border guard and occupying two villages in its territory.
Saudi jets began bombing rebel positions the following day.
Prince Khaled said on Tuesday that the fighting has killed 73 Saudi soldiers, wounded 470 and left 26 missing.
The rebels first rose up in 2004. The Yemeni government launched a major offensive in August to try to end the uprising. Aid groups say more than 150,000 people have been driven from their homes.

German
After months without a trace, three German children kidnapped in June in Yemen have resurfaced in a new video, but it featured no sign of their parents, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Bild daily said the images, apparently recorded recently by the abductors, indicated that at least the three children aged one, three and five were still alive. The German government now has a copy of the video, it said.
“The children seemed exhausted,” a high-ranking German official was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
The German government and federal authorities declined to comment.
The family of five was abducted in northern Yemen in June along with two German Bible students and a South Korean who were shot and killed soon after.
The kidnappers are believed to have links to the Islamist militant network al-Qaeda.
Since then, there had been no sign of 36-year-old technician Johannes H., his wife Sabine, also 36, or their three children.
There has been no word either of a Briton also seized at the time in the Saada region, the stronghold of Shiite rebels at war with the Yemeni government.
The German government has dispatched former ambassador Juergen Chrobog, who was himself kidnapped in Yemen while on holiday in 2005, as a mediator.
More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in the past 15 years, with most being freed unharmed.
A Japanese engineer was released in November after nine days as a hostage held by tribesmen near the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

Extradition
British police vowed Wednesday they would never give up trying to extradite a wealthy Yemeni man whom they suspect raped and murdered a Norwegian student, even though it could take a decade.
Martine Vik Magnussen’s body was found on March 16 last year in the basement of a London block of flats where Farouk Abdulhak lived. The 22-year-old is the son of one of Yemen’s richest businessmen.
London’s Metropolitan Police force believe they have built up a “strong case” against Abdulhak, but have been hampered by the lack of an extradition treaty between Britain and Yemen. Abdulhak has returned to his homeland.
“In any murder investigation, if there’s a prospect of bringing people to justice, we will,” a police spokesman told AFP.
“We’ve got a named person we want to speak to and we will continue to pursue him until it’s resolved.”
Britain’s interior ministry and Foreign Office are working behind the scenes with the Yemeni authorities.
“I am not surprised the matter has taken this long, I have got an investigation back (concluded) this month which we have been waiting 10 years for,” said Detective Chief Inspector Richard Ambrose.
“These things do take an inordinate amount of time but they never go away. They will always be there. We will eventually bring Mr Abdulhak back to face justice.”
Abdulhak enjoyed a jetset lifestyle and may be uncomfortable being stuck in Yemen, Ambrose added.
“If he steps into a lot of countries there is an arrest warrant waiting for him. There is every likelihood he would be arrested,” he said.

Business studies student Magnussen, 23, was last seen alive on March 13 last year in an upmarket London club. Abdulhak was with her. They were both students at the private London university Regent’s College and knew each other socially.
Her semi-naked body was found partly covered by rubble three days later in the basement of Abdulhak’s block of flats.
Police said Abdulhak flew to Yemen within hours. He is on their most wanted list.
Abdulhak’s lawyer Mohammed al-Bakouli insists he has nothing to hide and is “not on the run”.
His father is businessman Shaher Abdulhak who founded Shaher Trading and whose empire includes petroleum, soft drinks, tourism and property.
Earlier this month several hundred people marched through Oslo to demand action over the case.