Germany dispatches new ambassador to Yemen, France to follow

By: Mohammed al-Kibsi
Sep 8, 2011
Germany dispatched his Excellency Mr. Holger Green as a new ambassador to Yemen.
The new German Ambassador’s name was revealed during a meeting between him and the Yemeni foreign Minister Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi on Wednesday in Sana’a.
During the meeting, al-Qirbi received a copy of Green's credentials.
Al-Qirbi and Green reviewed the last developments in the national arena and the possible means to for solving them.
Meanwhile France announced yesterday that the foreign ministry is to dispatch a new ambassador to Yemen soon. It added that its ambassador to Yemen was not harassed as was published in some media outlets recently.
On the other hand the Yemeni foreign ministry denied the reports that the French ambassador left Yemen in condemnation for harassment he subjected to and affirmed that he left last Sunday and was back to Yemen on Tuesday so as to perform the protocols of his farewell.

Wounded civilians unable to reach Yemen hospital

AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Clashes in southern Yemen Wednesday killed eight soldiers, a teenager and at least 17 militants on Wednesday, and wounded civilians had to use field clinics because government hospitals had been shut down, officials and witnesses said.

Al-Qaida linked militants have taken advantage of internal political turmoil to take over parts of southern Yemen. In recent weeks, government troops backed by U.S. airstrikes have stepped up their attacks on militants there.

Western nations believe the Yemen branch of al-Qaida is one of the group's most active and dangerous.

Wednesday's ground and air offensive unfolded in the southern Yemeni province of Abyan, where the militants seized control of its capital city and surrounding towns earlier this year.

A medical official in Abyan, which has become a flashpoint for fierce fighting between militants and the military, said Asmaa Hamza, a 14-year-old girl, was killed in Wednesday's military airstrike on al-Razi hospital. It was the second attack on the same hospital in the town of Jaar in less than 48 hours, witnesses said.

Witnesses said that Wednesday's airstrikes on Jaar also targeted a high school, a hotel, residential buildings and a police station, near areas where the military believes militants are seeking refuge.

The United Nations deplored Monday's attack on Al-Razi hospital in Abyan, according to a statement Wednesday. That attack killed at least seven civilians. "The targeting of civilians and the obstruction of humanitarian aid constitute a serious violation of International Humanitarian Law," the U.N. statement said.

Airstrikes in the area wounded at least 20 civilians, several seriously, according to a hospital official.

Local official Nasser Hussain said that in Abyan's town of Jaar, people had to open field clinics to treat wounded civilians who cannot be transferred to Aden. Government clinics were shut down after a militant takeover of the area.

Security deteriorated in Abyan when longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh left for Saudi Arabia for treatment of serious wounds following an attack on his palace in the capital Sanaa in June.

Medical officials at the military hospital in the southern province of Aden said eight soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in neighboring Abyan, near Zinjibar, the provincial capital.

Officials also said that airstrikes east of Abyan's capital Zinjibar targeted a suspected al-Qaida hideout, killing three.

The bodies of another 14 militants were found just outside Zinjibar on the rode to the city of Code, according to a Defense Ministry statement.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The security crisis in southern Yemen, which has forced over 100,000 people to flee their homes for refuge in safer towns, comes as protesters are demanding that Saleh resign.

They have called on Saleh, who has ruled for 33 years, to accept an initiative drawn up by neighboring Gulf countries that would have him transfer his powers to his vice president.

Saleh, who remains in Saudi Arabia, has not signed the deal, charging that it is unconstitutional.

Rather than sign the proposal on behalf of Saleh, Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Wednesday announced that he would open a dialogue with signatories of the Gulf initiative on ways to implement it.

Members of the opposition rejected Hadi's proposition as a tactic to keep Saleh in power.

"The revolution is proceeding and will not accept any efforts to circumvent the Gulf initiative," said opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan.

Also Wednesday, officials said the governor of central Marib province survived an assassination attempt that killed one of his bodyguards and wounded four others. Marib province is considered an al-Qaida stronghold, one of several areas where the central government has little authority.

Officials said gunmen ambushed Naji al-Zaydi's car. He was not harmed, they said.

Yemen ruling party OKs modified power transfer plan

Sep 7, 2011

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's ruling party on Wednesday approved changes to a plan to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh from office in hopes of defusing a stalemate that has paralysed the country and given a lift to militants suspected of links to al Qaeda.

Saleh, who is in Saudi Arabia recovering from a June assassination attempt, has defied months of mass protests against his autocratic 33-year rule and confounded international efforts to solve the crisis.

Last month, he gave the green light for his GPC party to accept amendments to a transition plan brokered by Yemen's Gulf neighbours and it was approved after two days of discussions.

"We reached an agreement with difficulty ... There were extremist elements who opposed the plan," said a party member present at the conference who declined to give his name.

The United States and neighbouring oil giant Saudi Arabia, wary that upheaval in Yemen could give al Qaeda's local branch more leeway to operate, have pushed for Saleh to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative for a transition of power, a blueprint that has been amended a number of times.

The initiative looked dead in the water after Saleh on three occasions backed out of signing it at the very last minute.

Amendments approved by Saleh's party would have him transfer his powers to his vice president, Abbd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, after signing the deal but gives him three months to formally step down, as opposed to previous plans stipulating 30 days.

After Saleh leaves, elections would be held and the opposition would form an interim unity government for a two-year transition period, retaining Hadi as interim president.

The government would use the time to draft a new constitution and hold a dialogue with insurgent groups such as Shi'ite Muslim rebels in the north and separatists in the south.

The new plan also requires a restructuring of the Yemeni military within three months of Saleh signing the deal. At present, Saleh's family dominates the armed forces high command. His son, Ahmed Ali Saleh, who the opposition worries is being groomed to succeed him, heads the elite Republican Guard.

Away from the negotiating table, violence raged on in Yemen's south where fighters believed to belong to al Qaeda have seized at least three towns, a local official said on Wednesday.

Warplanes bombed suspected militant strongholds in the volatile southern province of Abyan on Wednesday, killing many, including civilians in the city of Jaar, a local official said. He was not able to estimate the number of casualties.

One resident said he counted 24 air strikes on the city and that residents were leaving in droves to escape the bloodshed.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis have fled Abyan in recent months as the army tries to regain control of lost ground.

Three militants were killed on Wednesday in a strike on the coastal town of Shaqra, which Islamist fighters seized last month, a security official said.

Opponents of Saleh accuse him of exaggerating the threat of al Qaeda and even encouraging militancy to scare Washington and Riyadh into backing him to avoid a breakdown into anarchy.

Yemen 'can achieve 4.5% growth'

Beleaguered Arab nation can rebound next year if political standoff ends, minister says

Bloomberg

September 7, 2011

Riyadh: Yemen's economy can rebound next year and achieve growth of as much as 4.5 per cent if the country's political standoff is resolved, Industry and Trade Minister Hesham Sharaf said.

The government had forecast a similar growth rate this year before protests calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh began in January, and will now "be very lucky" to record 3 per cent expansion, Sharaf said in a phone interview on Sunday from the capital, Sana'a.

Direct and indirect loses to Yemen's economy have reached between $5 billion (Dh18 billion) and $8 billion, Sharaf said. Gross domestic product in 2010 was estimated at $31 billion by the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Yemen, the poorest Arab nation and one that has been used as a base for Al Qaida attacks, has been wracked by violence as the political standoff deepened with military and tribal leaders joining the opposition. Efforts by Gulf Arab countries to mediate an agreement ending Saleh's three-decade rule have repeatedly broken down.

One rebel killed near Yemen's capital

SANAA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- At least one rebel was killed and two others wounded late Tuesday when Yemeni government troops heavily shelled the rebels' hideouts in an area northeast of Sanaa, a local official said.

"One armed tribesman was killed and two others were injured late Tuesday in heavy shelling by the Republican Guards in Samaa military base that targeted several hideouts of the rebels in Arhab district," the official told Xinhua, requesting anonymity.

The official added that the death toll might increase in the next few hours as the shelling is continuing.

The volatile district, about 60 km northeast of Sanaa, has been the front line of almost daily clashes between opposition fighters and Saleh's elite Republican Guards since late May.

Defense Ministry said the opposition militants were seeking to capture the military base, the Sanaa International Airport and northern entrances to Sanaa.

Yemen has been gripped by a political crisis since late January when protests demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year rule erupted.

Officials say Yemen airstrikes kill 3 militants

By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press

09/07/2011

SANAA, Yemen—Yemeni officials say warplanes hunting down al-Qaida suspects have launched a series of airstrikes in the country's southern Abyan province that killed at least three militants.

The officials said the airstrikes Wednesday east of the provincial capital, Zinjibar, targeted a suspected al-Qaida hideout, killing three.

The officials said a senior military commander survived an ambush Tuesday west of the capital while two his guards were killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Militants took control of parts of Abyan in March after the turmoil that gripped Yemen following protests demanding the resignation of longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.