Yemen opposition welcomes U.N. call for power transfer

August 10, 2011

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Yemen's top opposition movement welcomed the U.N. Security Council's call for a transfer of power, an initiative that could end the political instability in the poverty-ridden Arab nation.

Mohammed Qahtan, the spokesman for the Joint Meeting Parties, said on Wednesday that the international stance must not be different from the will of the people who are seeking democracy and reforms.

"The U.N. and our international friends must make positive and quick steps towards the Yemeni revolution and ensure change in the manner Yemenis see necessary," said Qahtan.

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged Yemeni parties "to move forward urgently (in) an inclusive, orderly and Yemeni-led process of political transition that meets the needs and aspirations of the Yemeni people for change."

It voiced concerns over the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Yemen. They were "deeply concerned at the worsening security situation, including the threat from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula."

Yemen has endured months of protests and militant violence.

Protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began in January after the successful uprising in Tunisia that triggered region-wide reform movements.

The protests led to open street battles after Saleh balked at a deal with the opposition that would have eased him out of office within a month.

The government has also faced off with Islamic militants, including the al Qaeda wing in Yemen, regarded by analysts as a potent and dangerous group.

Saleh was badly injured last June in an assassination attempt on the presidential palace amid a tribal revolt against his 32-year-old rule and was taken to Saudi Arabia for treatment.

He had been discharged from a military hospital, but it was not clear when he would return to Yemen.

Saleh's vice president, Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, has been running the government since then.

The opposition has vowed to prevent Saleh from returning.

The JMP has announced the formation of a national council on August 17 to represent all the factions in the Yemeni political arena. That's a step experts see as a beginning to the formation of an independent transitional government.

"The JMP has been patient with the slow international reaction towards the Yemeni revolution and is not willing to stay quiet any longer," said Ali Abdul Jabbar, director of the Sana'a based Dar Ashraf Research Center.

He said that the JMP is currently under immense pressure from the pro-democracy youth to cut all channels of dialogue with the regime.

"The youth have been patient and ignored for six months. The JMP saw the international community had enough time to demand change but failed."

But Mohammed Nagi Shaef, head of Bakeel confederation, Yemen's biggest tribe, and senior member of the ruling General People Congress party, said that Yemeni tribes will not allow the international community to force Saleh into early elections or withdraw from power.

He said that tribal leaders have called on all Saleh's supporters nationwide to come to the capital and protest in front of the presidential palace, demanding that the international community allow Saleh back in Yemen.

"President Saleh's term ends in 2013, and we will not allow him to leave before that period at any cost. This is what the Yemeni constitution says and this is what will happen," said Shaef.

However, Hameed al-Ahmar, the president of the opposition dialogue committee, said world powers should listen to the voice of the people to ensure safety and stability in the region.

The United Nations, the United States and the European Union "are clearly standing with the will of the Yemeni people for change. This is what Yemenis were waiting for all along," said al-Ahmar.

"This is what we expected from the U.S. and the international community and we hope it continues," al-Ahmar said.

Civil war fears chill traumatised Yemen neighbourhood

Wed Aug 10, 2011

By Mohammed Ghobari

SANAA (Reuters) - In Sanaa's battle-scarred Hasaba neighbourhood, the distant chanting of protesters demanding the removal of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is punctuated by gunfire nearby, reminding residents that Yemen's torment may be far from over.

"We can't take much more of this," said Arafat Ahmed, shaking his head as he stuffed bags with bread in his tiny bakery. "Life has come to a halt. It's clear that armed confrontation is the only option until the crisis is resolved."

Bloody street fighting rocked Hasaba, home to Sadeq al-Ahmar, a tribal foe of Saleh, in May after the president reneged again on a Gulf-brokered plan to end his 33 years in power.

The mortar and machinegun clashes subsided after a bomb blast wounded Saleh in his presidential compound, forcing him to seek treatment in Saudi Arabia, where he is recuperating.

Now, with troops again manning checkpoints around the capital, the crackle of shooting in the crumbling alleyways of Hasaba -- and outbreaks of fighting elsewhere in a country awash with guns -- have reignited fears of civil war.

For seven months, tens of thousands of Yemenis, including those in a protest camp not far from Hasaba, have demonstrated against Saleh. But shootouts between government forces and anti-Saleh gunmen are increasingly marring the peaceful protests.

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest state and host to an ambitious al Qaeda branch, borders oil giant Saudi Arabia. Gulf and Western powers fear it could collapse into a failed state on the doorstep of some of the world's largest oil reserves.

BREAKING APART?

Fighting is on the rise in at least five parts of this rugged, mountainous country on the southern rim of the Arabian Peninsula. More and more armed men roam the streets of Yemeni cities as suspicions and frustrations multiply.

The United States and Saudi Arabia, wary of turmoil that could give al Qaeda more room to operate, have been pressing Saleh for months to accept a transition plan brokered by Yemen's wealthier neighbours in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Saleh has vowed to return to Yemen, even as U.S. officials urge him to stay away, deepening a political stalemate. Many Yemenis worry that it is too late to stave off a descent into bloodshed that would only compound their misery.

"I think the political solution has been eroded in favour of fighting. But even the fighting will not end the battle," said Yemeni analyst Ali Seif Hassan, citing the standoff in Sanaa between government forces and military units commanded Ali Mohsen, a powerful general who has defected to the opposition.

"When Yemen's capital becomes divided like this, it means Yemen will be broken into more than one entity," he said.

A similar confrontation between pro-Saleh forces and opposition tribesmen has turned Taiz, 200 km (120 miles) south of Sanaa, into another tense and divided city.

Fighting has already forced tens of thousands of Yemenis to flee their homes. Some are from villages shelled during battles between the army and opposition tribesmen. Thousands more have escaped from southern towns engulfed in clashes between troops and suspected al Qaeda militants and other Islamist fighters.

PREPARED FOR THE WORST

Hasaba residents are bracing for the worst. Many have piled sandbags outside their already shell-pocked homes.

At the nearby protest camp, some still believe in peaceful change but fear that violence could eclipse their struggle.

"We still hope to achieve our demands peacefully, but if we can't, it raises the threat of war," said leftist activist Samia al-Aghbari, sitting outside the rows of protest tents, her frowning face framed by a bright pink veil.

Desperation is gripping many Yemenis as fuel shortages and soaring prices overwhelm a country where a third of the people suffer chronic hunger and nearly half live on $2 a day or less.

Some residents, frustrated by their own politicians, are also turning their anger on foreign powers they feel have not put enough pressure on the government to reach a solution.

"If Saudi Arabia or America wanted Saleh to go they would have done it," complained Sanaa shopkeeper Yahya Musallah. "The situation could be finished in less than a month. But they keep waiting and the war will come before they intervene."

Yemeni tribesmen kill militant leader in south

ADEN | Wed Aug 10, 2011

(Reuters) - Armed Yemeni tribesmen said on Wednesday they had killed a militant leader in the country's south during a campaign by tribal and government forces to retake areas seized by Islamist fighters in the crisis-ridden Arabian Peninsula state.

Seven months of protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule have paralyzed Yemen, plunging it into a crisis that has loosened army control over swathes of the fractious, impoverished state.

Saudi Arabia and the United States have both been targeted by al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing and fear that a power vacuum in the Arab world's poorest country could present a major threat to international security.

Islamist militants who the government says belong to al Qaeda have exploited the upheaval to expand their foothold in the south, taking over at least two cities in the volatile southern province of Abyan including its capital Zinjibar.

A tribal leader in Abyan said tribesmen killed Yassir al-Shalily, a leader of Ansar al-Sharia (Supporters of Islamic Law) during pitched battles overnight in Mudiyah, about 130 km (80 miles) from the southern port of Aden, when militants trying to enter the city were repelled.

A loose coalition of tribesmen and the army launched an offensive last month to try to flush militants out of the province, but it has recaptured little territory.

The identity of the militants is unclear. While the government has said they the Yemeni wing of Al Qaeda, analysts say other local Islamist groups could be at work. A publication associated with the group has said it is active there.

Other security analysts say followers of al Qaeda, which has little popularity among locals, may have rebranded themselves as Ansar al-Sharia to try to appeal to residents.

Opponents of Saleh, who previously earned U.S. backing by presenting himself as a partner in the West's counter-terrorism strategy, say he has deliberately let militants tighten their grip in the south to show only he can keep al Qaeda in check.

Both Washington and Riyadh have pressed Saleh to sign a deal brokered by Yemen's Gulf neighbors that would ease him from power. But he backed out of it three times at the very last minute, miring Yemen in a political deadlock that risks deteriorating into civil war.

Despite being severely injured in a June assassination attempt, Saleh, who left hospital three days ago, has vowed to return to Yemen, defying a chorus of demands he step down.

Politics held hostage in Yemen, U.S. says

Aug. 10, 2011

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (UPI) -- The democratic process in Yemen shouldn't be held in limbo while the country's president weighs his options from Saudi Arabia, a U.S. official said.

There are conflicting reports about whether Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is to return to Yemen after his release from a hospital in Saudi Arabia. He was wounded in a June 3 attack on his presidential compound and only recently released.

Saleh has faced mounting pressure to resign after enduring months of political opposition at home. He had said he supports a resignation plan brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council but has refused to sign the measure.

Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said democratic processes in Yemen shouldn't be "held hostage" while the president weighs his options.

"Our view is that Yemen needs to move in a democratic direction along the lines of the GCC report," she said. "How that happens is up to the Yemeni people but it's got to happen."

Officials in Saleh's ruling General People's Congress maintain he is the legitimate leader until the country has presidential elections.

Saudi Arabia tops list of importers of fish from Yemen

SANA’A, August 09 (Saba)- Saudi Arabia ranked first in the list of importers of fish from Yemen.
According to the Ministry of Fisheries, Saudi Arabia imported 20257 tons of fish and marine life during the first half of 2011, with a cost of more than US$ 71 million.
In a statement to Saba, Ghazi Ahmed Lahmer Undersecretary of the Ministry of Fisheries said on Tuesday that his country's exports of fish and marine life covered 33 countries of which Saudi Arabia ranked first.

Saleh vows return to Yemen, U.S. urges him stay away

DUBAI | Tue Aug 9, 2011

(Reuters) - The United States has urged Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh not to return home from Saudi Arabia, where he has been recovering from injuries suffered in an assassination attempt during a popular uprising, diplomatic sources said Tuesday.

They said that message was conveyed directly to Saleh, who emerged Sunday from the Riyadh hospital where he had been receiving treatment since a bomb attack in his palace on June 3 left him with severe burns and other wounds. The sources did not indicate whether Saleh accepted that request.

The latest development in the wrangle over Saleh's fate came as he renewed a vow to return as soon as his health permits to Yemen, where six months of protests demanding his ouster have seen the impoverished state slide toward the brink of civil war.

Yemen's state news agency said Tuesday Saleh's doctors would determine the length of that recovery.

The United States and Saudi Arabia, both targets of foiled attacks from al Qaeda's Yemen-based branch and wary of chaos that could embolden the group, have tried to ease Saleh from office with a plan brokered by Yemen's richer Gulf neighbors.

Saleh agreed to the deal but backed out of signing at the last minute on three separate occasions, the last of which kindled weeks of fighting between his forces and fighters from the al Hashed tribal grouping, which supports calls for an end to his 33 years of autocratic rule.

Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, urged Saleh to allow the power transfer that deal envisioned.

"We believe ... dealing with the political, economic and security problems in Yemen cannot happen without a transfer of power in the country, and the arrival of new leadership in the country," he told U.S. Arabic-language broadcaster Radio Sawa.

His remarks echoed those of U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner Monday. When queried about reports that Washington had asked Saleh not to return, Toner urged an immediate transfer of power to his deputy, the acting head of state.

"We've also said that this is something that cannot wait until a decision is made regarding President Saleh's future, that we've got an acting president, and ... they need to move toward this transition immediately."

POWER STRUGGLES

After debating Yemen Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council called for "an inclusive, orderly and Yemeni-led process of political transition that meets the needs and aspirations of the Yemeni people for change."

In a statement, the 15-nation council expressed deep concern at the worsening security situation, including the threat from al Qaeda, and urged parties to ensure access for humanitarian aid and not to target vital infrastructure.

The transition plan, brokered by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, has been moribund since Saleh last avoided signing it in May, triggering fighting between his forces and those of the al Ahmar family, a leading part of the Hashed group.

A further center of power is represented by General Ali Mohsen, a top officer who turned on Saleh and sided with the protesters, against whom forces loyal to Saleh turned their weapons as calls for his removal intensified.

Relative calm has mostly held in the capital since Saleh's departure, even as longstanding conflicts in Yemen's south have reignited, including a fight with Islamists that has led to a mass exodus of the population of one southern province.

The collection of leftist, Islamist, socialist and other political parties which inked the deal that Saleh rejected have been shunned by the street protesters, whose leaders disdain them as long-time collaborators of Saleh and Saudi Arabia.

That contest, said analyst Ali Seif Hassan, is deadlocked between forces commanded by Saleh's son and nephews, those of tribal chief Sadeq al-Ahmar, and Mohsen.

It may only be resolved by a far more complicated bargain that changes the balance on the ground, Hassan said.

"The only way he will agree not to return is if Ali Mohsen also consents to leave. They were in power together, committed crimes together, and his (Saleh's) group will not consent to Mohsen remaining while the president accepts being gone," he said.