Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih stressed the importance of maintaining the unity of his country in his remarks to leaders of the 22-member Arab League gathered in Libya on Saturday, dpa reported.
"Unity is the foundation for the security and prosperity for all Yemeni citizens, and for the security and stability of the region and the world," Salih said.
He thanked "the sisterly countries that stood by the Yemeni people" in the face of Houthi rebels' campaign against the government along northern Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia last year.
The rebels' campaign showed the "implementation of foreign agendas against the security of Yemen and Saudi Arabia and the region in general," he said, in an oblique reference to Iran, which Yemen and Saudi Arabia have accused of supporting the rebels.
"The government will continue in its efforts to promote peace and reconstruction and will make every effort to prevent the return of war," Salih said.
The Yemeni president then rounded on the separatist movement in the country's south.
"These subversive elements are beyond law and order," Salih charged.
"They are a relic of the separatist elements that stirred up sedition in 1994, and today commits acts of violence and vandalism. They incite hatred ... among people of one nation to promote their separatist aims and tear the nation apart."
North and South Yemen joined in 1990. The government in 1994 put down a brief uprising by those loyal to South Yemen's previous government, who complained that those from the north had taken control of the south's resources, and its most vital political and military offices.