Nasser Arrabyee

Yemen's "parallel revolution" inspires street-level protests

2012-01-27T06:01:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters, 27/01/2012

By Tom Finn

SANAA-The protest that paralyzed Yemen's main airport erupted when an air force officer hurled a boot at his commander, a relative of the outgoing president and a symbol of the corruption that divides even his supporters.

"This is all I have left for the month," says Faris Al-Jabar, one of about 50 officers who blocked Sanaa airport's runway this week, plucking a few banknotes from his tattered wallet.

"I earn in a month what my superiors spend in a day."

Their mutiny last week against General Mohammed Saleh Al-Ahmar, half-brother of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, halted flights at the capital's airport.

Riot police used water cannon to scatter the rebel airmen but they decamped to picket the heavily fortified home of Saleh's deputy, the country's acting leader.

Saleh's departure for medical treatment in the United States has done little to placate popular anger in the impoverished Arabian peninsula state.

Saleh's sons and nephews still hold key positions in the military and intelligence services, though the military is supposed to be restructured during two years of transition presided over by vice-president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Saleh's presumed successor.

A string of mutinies has disrupted military and government departments headed by loyalists of Saleh, who has agreed to step down after a year of protests, and are inspiring wider civil disobedience.

Many protesters complain the regime they sought to overthrow remains largely intact.

"They may have altered the leadership but at the ground level we see no changes. The same corrupt officials who ruled for decades are still running our country," said Ahmed Al-Zumair, a 45-year-old civil servant.

TANGLE OF PATRONAGE

From petrol stations to government newspapers, workers have been turning on their superiors, storming offices to demand reforms and the dismissal of managers whom they claim are corrupt beneficiaries of the regime.

Dubbed 'the parallel revolution', at least 19 state institutions have been targeted by protesters, among them Sanaa police headquarters, the Armed Forces Moral Guidance Department, the Agriculture and Irrigation office, the coastguards, the traffic police and state television.

"It is a more dramatic and efficient way of effecting change that reflects the grievances of civil servants who have been controlled by corrupt officials for a very long time," said AbdulGhani Al-Iryani, a prominent Yemeni political analyst.

"They are not willing to wait for political negotiations to deal with these corrupt officials so they're taking things into their own hands and it's proving remarkably effective."

Notable triumphs for the strikers since mid-December include the sacking of President Saleh's son-in-law, Abdul Khaleq al-Qadi, who was director of the national airline Yemeniyya, after its workers disrupted operations.

This was followed by the dismissal of General Ali Hassan al-Shater after protesters seized control of his influential 26 September army newspaper and published a damning editorial against him.

Both men were long-standing allies of the president, previously regarded by their staff as untouchable.

CULTURE OF STRIKES, DISOBEDIENCE

The recent wave of disobedience may give Hadi, who is set to become president next month, the chance to assert himself as a political figure in his own right.

"Hadi is seeking to step out from Saleh's shadow. Dislodging some of those notoriously corrupt men who have close ties to the president is one way of doing that," said Abdullah al-Faqih, a professor of politics at Sana'a University.

He acknowledged, though, that the graft problem was deeply rooted and would outlive Saleh's regime. "It will be an uphill struggle - patronage remains the modus vivendi of Yemen politics."

An end to corruption was a central motivating force in anti-government protests that quickly turned into calls for the ouster of Saleh, whose forces killed hundreds of protesters in an attempt to end the demonstrations and underpin his position.

With a hugely overstaffed and underpaid civil service, Yemen has endured an epidemic of corruption, slipping in 2011 from 146 to 164 on Transparency International's corruption scale.

Enraged by months of fuel shortages and day-long power outages residents of Sanaa have taken a cue from the strikers, forcing their government to listen.

On Tuesday a band of young men sealed off a main highway with piles of rocks and flaming car tires to demand their homes be supplied with water after a two-month cutoff.

They fended off angry drivers, and even police cars, with shouts and nail-studded planks, and the blockades dragged on for hours until a government water-truck arrived with the promise of filling their tanks.

"These people have learned a new culture, which is the culture of strikes and disobedience," said Maher, a 20-year-old bystander.

"They feel they can vent their anger against anything that goes against their welfare. They are tired of being ignored."

Al-Qaeda in Yemen ‘still a real threat’ to US, says Panetta

2012-01-27T00:17:00.000-08:00

Source: AFP, 27/01/2012

WASHINGTON: Despite the killings of Osama bin Laden and radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the al-Qaeda terror network remains a “real threat to the United States,” Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said in a TV interview late Wednesday.

CBS News released excerpts of an interview with Panetta scheduled to run Sunday, in which the Pentagon chief discusses US strategy to disband al-Qaeda’s global networks.

“We’re going after al-Qaeda, wherever they’re at,” Panetta told CBS in the interview excerpt.

“And clearly, we’re confronting al-Qaeda in Pakistan. We’re confronting the nodes of al-Qaeda in Yemen, in Somalia, in North Africa. … and obviously whatever al-Qaeda links are involved in Afghanistan,” he said.

Have US forces have defeated al-Qaeda?

“Not yet,” Panetta said.

“They’re still a real threat. There’s still al-Qaeda out there. And we’ve got to continue to put pressure on them wherever they’re at.”

Panetta however said that US forces have “undermined their leadership significantly.” Of the network’s 10 main leaders listed after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, only one is still alive: Ayman al-Zawahiri, who took over after Osama was shot dead in a dramatic US commando raid in Pakistan in May.

In the past year, eight of al-Qaeda’s top 20 leaders were eliminated, most by missiles fired from US drones operating under an expanded covert warfare effort launched by President Barack Obama after taking office in January 2009.

Those killed include Awlaki, slain in Yemen in a US drone strike on Sept 30.

Former CIA chief Panetta took over as defence secretary in July, replacing Robert Gates, a holdover from the presidency of George W Bush. — AFP

Sectarian clashes kill at least 22 in Yemen

2012-01-26T07:36:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters,26/01/2012

SANAA-At least 22 people were killed in clashes between Shi'ite Muslim rebels and fighters from a Sunni Islamist group in a province under rebel control in rugged northern Yemen, tribal sources said on Thursday.

A source close to the Shi'ite rebels known as Houthis said fighters from a Sunni group known as the Salafi attacked the rebels overnight in Hajja and in the Kataf area of Saada province, an area that has seen intense sectarian fighting in recent months.

"We blocked the attack in under an hour and 13 people died in Hajja and nine in Kataf," said the Houthi source.

The Salafi fighters are followers of a Sunni creed akin to Saudi Arabia's Wahhabi school of Islam.

The Houthis, who draw their name from a tribal leader, had fought government forces for years until an uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh last year gave them free rein in Saada province, which borders the world's number one oil-exporter Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom, a key regional U.S. ally, briefly fought the Houthis in Saada after they seized Saudi territory in 2009.

Political upheaval over Saleh's fate has severely weakened central government control over swathes of Yemen, allowing some groups to seize whole provinces including Saada.

"The whole governorate (Saada) is controlled by Houthis, we only have to deal with one party," the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) head of operations for the Near and Middle East, Beatrice Megevand-Roggo, said in an interview.

Saleh left Sanaa for medical treatment in the United States on Sunday, saying in a parting speech that he would return to Yemen, which was paralysed for most of 2011 by protests against his 33-year rule.

Despite his absence, many fear he and his associates will continue to hold sway over the impoverished country.

Yemeni air force officers went on strike for a fifth day on Thursday, demanding the resignation of their commander Mohammed Saleh al-Ahmar, a half-brother of Saleh.

Soldiers who defected from Saleh's forces and joined those calling for his overthrow said government forces had kidnapped two senior air force officers in the coastal city of Hudaida for supporting the strike.

President Saleh cleared airs with his own tribe before flying to US for treatment

2012-01-26T05:13:00.000-08:00

President Saleh will return from US to attend the installation ceremony of the new elected President

By Nasser Arrabyee, 26/01/2012

The tribe in Yemen realistically is still above the law and State.

Knowing this very well, President Ali Abdullah Saleh did not forget to fix up every problem he had with his own tribe, Sanhan tribe, before he left to US for more treatments last week.

All tribal leaders from Sanhan tribe, both loyal and opposed to Saleh, held a meeting on January 22, 2012, that's hours before Saleh left the country for Oman on his way to US.

The purpose of the meeting was to clear the airs and make a comprehensive reconciliation between Saleh and his opponents in the same tribe, especially the with the defected general Ali Muhsen , Saleh's cousin and who was one of the most important pillars in Saleh's rule over the last 33 years.

Although general Ali Muhsen did not attend the meeting, but he was included in that historic tribal reconciliation through the tribal leaders loyal to him like general Saleh Al Dhani, and the tribal leader Abdul Elah Al Qadi.

While President Saleh was attending the meeting as one of the tribal leaders of Sanhan tribe, the meeting was chaired by the general Ahmed Ismail Abu Huriah, one of the most respected tribal leaders in Sanhan. The Vice Presodent Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, attended the meeting as a national sponsor.

The tribal leader, Abdul Qader Helal, was attending the meeting as one of the tribal leaders of Sanhan.

Helal and Abu Huriah are seen as neutral leaders who were and still have connections with Saleh and Muhsen during the year crisis.

" With the help of Allah Almighty, all brothers from Sanhan tribe including the opponents met and pardoned each other completely and let bygones be bygones," said a document signed by the tribal leaders at the end of the meeting.

Later in the day, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he would travel to United States for more treatments and get back to Sanaa for attending the protocols ceremony of installation of the new President of Yemen after the day of elections on February 21, 2012.

Hours before his trip to United States Saleh said to Media" I would go to United States for treatments and get back to Sanaa as a head of the People's General Congress and to install Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi ad President after February 21."

"The national anthem will be played and all senior officials in the Palace will be attending, then Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi will take the Presidency, and Ali Abdullah Saleh will take his bag and say to all good bye, and will then go to his house, and this is the protocol that is done everywhere in the world," President Saleh said.

President Saleh also promoted his vice president Hadi to the rank of Marshal, the highest rank in the Yemeni armed forces, as a sign of respect and appreciation of the national role Hadi has been doing and will be doing as the new President of Yemen.

" From here I would declare the promotion of my deputy Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to the rank of Marshal, in respect and appreciation of his national efforts and positions," President Saleh said.

Then President Saleh called all Yemenis to cooperate with Mr Hadi and with the opposition-chaired national unity government.

President Saleh then called all Yemenis for national reconciliation after the elections of February 21, 2012 by holding a national conference in which Al Qaeda will be excluded.

" Except for Al Qaeda and terrorism, this is something else," he said.

On Saturday January 21, 2012, the members of the Parliament of both the opposition and ruling party unanimously voted for an immunity law that will stop any future prosecutions or taking revenge between President Saleh and his now opponents but who were his partners one day during his 33-year rule.

" The immunity law includes Ali Abdullah Saleh and those who worked with him during the 33 years from civil, military and security agencies, " President Saleh.

President Saleh asked the Yemeni people to pardon him for any shortcomings he did and apologized for every one men and women.

" I would ask my people men and women to pardon me for any shortcomings during my 33 years in rule, and I apologize for all citizens men and women, and we should now take care of our martyrs and injured," he said.

President Saleh did not say when he is leaving for United States.

But on Saturday, sources from the Presidential Office told Nasser Arrabyee website that President Saleh will head for Oman and Ethiopia in official visits before he flies to New York, United States within the coming 48 hours.

Al Qaeda still causing sufferings to Yemen's civilians

2012-01-25T02:34:00.000-08:00

Source: BBC, Hardtalk,25/01/2012

By Stephen Sackur
Aden, Yemen

Next month, Yemen is supposed to be holding a presidential election which could mark the final departure from power of the country's long-time ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh. But now the poll looks in doubt as the security situation deteriorates in this strategically vital, highly volatile corner of the Arab World.

When the morning bell sounds inside the Bir Ahmed middle school in Aden no-one cares nor moves.

The classrooms are full, not with students but with listless refugees: families from the jagged hill country of south-eastern Yemen, who have laid bedding where the desks used to be and hung sheets from the walls to hide their women folk from strangers' prying eyes.

Mansour al-Arabi has been in this school for eight months, along with his wife Dowla and seven children.

“ Go any further and we cannot protect you. You will be killed ”
This proud farmer of sheep, apricots and sesame oil, is now dependent for survival on a monthly food handout from the United Nations.

Mr Arabi's misfortune was to live close to the town of Zinjibar, provincial capital of Yemen's Abyan province.

Heavy artillery

Last May, it was overrun by fighters from Ansar al-Sharia - widely seen as a front for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - perhaps the most potent offshoot of the global jihadi network.

Many residents fled; those that did not found their homes under attack as the Yemeni military pounded the rebels with airstrikes and heavy artillery.

"When we left we had to step over the bodies of the dead on the road," Dowla al-Arabi told me. "We are desperate to go home, but we can't."

More than 160,000 civilians have been forced to flee as the al-Qaeda-backed insurgency has spread.

Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, riddled with corruption and lacking any semblance of a coherent national government, is disintegrating.

Tens of thousands of destitute refugees have flooded into Aden. The port city's schools have been commandeered to provide them with shelter.

And that has pleased neither the refugees - who claim they are desperately short of food and water - nor the city's resident population.

"How much longer do we have to put up with this?" the headmistress of Bir Ahmed school yelled at me.

"We want our building back. And if we don't get it, there is going to be an explosion here".

Aden, a half-forgotten remnant of Britain's imperial past, clings to the rim of an ancient volcano jutting into the Arabian Sea.

These days it feels beleaguered, angry and increasingly lawless.

During my recent stay, two policemen were gunned down close to the port and four protesters were killed at a demonstration demanding secession for South Yemen.

When I went to see a senior UN official in his capacious compound - it housed the British Embassy during the days when South Yemen was an independent Marxist republic - I found him supervising the construction of blast walls around the front entrance.

'Turn around'

He pointed toward the blue waters of the Gulf of Aden and said: "Three days by boat and you've reached the Somali coast. Yemen is Somalia in the making".

I drove east out of Aden on the main route towards Zinjibar to see just how far the Sanaa government's writ now runs.

Within 15km (9 miles) I was stopped at a military checkpoint.

"You must turn around," the local commander told me.

"Go any further and we cannot protect you. You will be killed'.

A short time later, word came through of another town taken by the jihadists - this time just 160km (100 miles) from the capital Sanaa.

Many in the south believe the al-Qaeda threat has been tacitly encouraged by the country's long-time ruler, President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Mr Saleh, now in the US for medical treatment, has relinquished power after months of popular protest inspired by the Arab Spring, but there are hints that presidential elections may have to be postponed as the security situation deteriorates.

The Sanaa government has consistently used the spectre of al-Qaeda to drum up support from the West - many Yemenis believe that game is still being played.

And if it is, that spells danger not just for Yemen but the wider Arabian Peninsula.

Aden's battered harbour looks out on some of the most strategically important shipping lanes in the world.

That is why a British expeditionary force first occupied this rocky outpost 173 years ago.

It is why Western warships still patrol the waters off Yemen's coast.

And why America's most sophisticated surveillance equipment is trained on this southernmost corner of the Arab world.

In the coming months, the fear is they will be watching, powerless, as Yemen sinks deeper into chaos.

HARDtalk on the Road in Yemen will be broadcast on the BBC News Channel and on

Two Yemeni leading women activists under fire of Islamists as " not good Muslims"

2012-01-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee, 24/01/2012

Yemen Islamists changed their minds about the activists who mainly led the one-year protests for change and establishing the modern and civil State, the dream of a lot Yemenis.

Influential Islamists,now, campaign against these activists as kafers,(infidels), agents, and traitors, which are words that might endanger the lives of these activists in a conservative and un-knowledgeably religious country like Yemen.

At the top of the list of these activists being targeted day and night nowadays by extremists come Tawakul Karman, the Nobel prize winner for 2011, and Bushra Al Maktari, another woman activist and one of leaders of the anti-regime protests in the southern central city of Taiz.

The inciting campaigns are being launched in the squares, mosques, schools, houses and the social media like facebook, twitter and you tube.

The best and most lenient of these campaigns talk about putting these activists on trial for charges of trying to convert to another religion or blasphemy.

And the worst and harshest campaigns talk about killing these activists as enemies of Allah without being tried.

Killing without trial seems to be the easiest way for the brain-washed young people who believe they would get married to beautiful wives in paradise if they get killed while killing kafers, enemies of Allah.

Sheikh Ali Abdul Majid Al Zandani, one of the sons of Sheikh Abdul Majid Al Zandani, who is wanted by US and UN for terror charges, said today January,23, 2012, that Tawakul Karman had converted to a new religion, other than Islam, which is very dangerous accusation.

" today I have not any doubt that she is calling for overturning the Islam and replacing it with a new religion," said Al Zandani, the son in a statement published in local media.

Earlier in the week, Ms Karman said in a televised interview that "Islam is a source of inspiration not a source of legislation".

Commenting on this Al Zandani, the son, said " I was extremely shocked to hear her saying this."

"She is making the Muslem equals to the kafer," he wondered.

Al Zandani, the father,who is influential and spiritual leader in the Islamist party,Islah, last March went to the square of protests at the gate of Sanaa university and delivered a rhetoric speech in which he told the protesters that they had discovered the thing that he did not discover in his life to establish the Islamic Caliphate.

And he said that the protesters deserve an invention patent for that discovery of protesting to overthrow the regime.

For Ms Bushra Al Maktari, the campaign against her is happening more in Taiz where she is based.

The Member of Parliament of the Islamist party, Islah, Abdullah Ahmed Ali, leads the campaign against Ms Al Maktari and other activists like the sarcastic writer Fekri Kasem.

The MP Ali, who is also a mosque speaker in Taiz, led last Sunday tens of extremists outside his mosque, Al Noor, with some of them carrying banners condemning the activists as atheists and infidels.

" Yemen of wisdom and faith will never be a country for atheism" one of the banners read.

"Our country will be a cemetery for blasphemists" another banner read.

The Islamist leader, Abdullah Ahmed Ali was using a loudspeaker and shouting to the people to come and join the protests saying Allah is here Allah is here.

"Be with the scholars and do not be with the agents" he was telling people through his loudspeaker.

The Salafi demonstrators were demanding that Bushra and Fekri and others be put on trial for charges of blasphemy.

Earlier Bushra Al Maktari wrote a lengthy article titled " first year of revolution" in which she strongly criticized the Islamists for stealing the revolution and conspiring with the traditional forces, tribesmen and military, against the project of establishing the civil and modern state.

In the article, she was talking about Allah, the God, as the helper of the protesters and where there is no help to the protesters, she says Allah is not there.

For example, in her poetic article she said Allah was not present in Khedar, referring to a place outside the capital Sanaa where Bushra and hundreds of demonstrators spent one night during their walking March from Taiz to Sanaa last December.

No one helped them at all in the villages of Khedar as she said, they could not even get in the mosque for sleeping. So, she said Allah was not in Khedar , the phrase that extremist Islamists considered as blasphemy.

The political analyst Najeeb Ghallab defended Bushra Al Maktari as a freedom fighter and more believing in Allah than those accused her of blasphemy.

"Bushra was believing in Allah much more than those, when she wrote that article," said Ghallab.

President Saleh will return from US to attend the installation ceremony of the new elected President

2012-01-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,22/01/2012

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Saturday he would travel to United States for more treatments and get back to Sanaa for attending the protocols ceremony of installation of the new President of Yemen after the day of elections on February 21, 2012.

Hours before his trip to United States Saleh said to Media" I would go to United States for treatments and get back to Sanaa as a head of the People's General Congress and to install Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi ad President after February 21."

"The national anthem will be played and all senior officials in the Palace will be attending, then Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi will take the Presidency, and Ali Abdullah Saleh will take his bag and say to all good bye, and will then go to his house, and this is the protocol that is done everywhere in the world," President Saleh said.

President Saleh also promoted his vice president Hadi to the rank of Marshal, the highest rank in the Yemeni armed forces, as a sign of respect and appreciation of the national role Hadi has been doing and will be doing as the new President of Yemen.

" From here I would declare the promotion of my deputy Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to the rank of Marshal, in respect and appreciation of his national efforts and positions," President Saleh said.

Then President Saleh called all Yemenis to cooperate with Mr Hadi and with the opposition-chaired national unity government.

President Saleh then called all Yemenis for national reconciliation after the elections of February 21, 2012 by holding a national conference in which Al Qaeda will be excluded.

" Except for Al Qaeda and terrorism, this is something else," he said.

On Saturday January 21, 2012, the members of the Parliament of both the opposition and ruling party unanimously voted for an immunity law that will stop any future prosecutions or taking revenge between President Saleh and his now opponents but who were his partners one day during his 33-year rule.

" The immunity law includes Ali Abdullah Saleh and those who worked with him during the 33 years from civil, military and security agencies, " President Saleh.

President Saleh asked the Yemeni people to pardon him for any shortcomings he did and apologized for every one men and women.

" I would ask my people men and women to pardon me for any shortcomings during my 33 years in rule, and I apologize for all citizens men and women, and we should now take care of our martyrs and injured," he said.

President Saleh did not say when he is leaving for United States.

But on Saturday, sources from the Presidential Office told Nasser Arrabyee website that President Saleh will head for Oman and Ethiopia in official visits before he flies to New York, United States within the coming 48 hours.

President Saleh in official visits to Oman and Ethiopia before he flies to New York

2012-01-21T02:41:00.000-08:00

Immunity law approved by parliament and Hadi is consensus candidate for early elections of February 21

By Nasser Arrabyee,21/01/2012

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is expected to pay official visits to the Gulf Sultanate of Oman and to Ethiopia before he flies to New York for more treatment, said sources in the presidential office Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the opposition and the ruling party members of parliament unanimously approved Saturday a modified immunity law to prevent any future prosecutions between the conflicting parties.

Two days earlier than scheduled, the opposition and the ruling party also approved the current vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to be the consensus candidate in the early presidential elections on February 21? 2012.

The Parliament was supposed to vote on the immunity law next Monday January 23, after it was amended to make the protection from prosecution for specific leaders from opposition and ruling party including President Ali Abdullah Saleh. But because time is running out for implementing all the other steps of the GCC deal, and the regional and international pressure on all parties, the vote took place Saturday, 21/01/2012.

The approved immunity law is considered to be the essence of internationally and regionally supported deal signed by the Yemeni conflicting parties in Saudi capital Riyadh last November.

On February 21st, 2012, a new president for Yemen will be elected in an early election agreed upon by all conflicting parties to end the one-year long political crisis.

Preparations for the February elections are in full swing despite the fact that the two conflicting parties (opposition and ruling) are required to nominate only the current vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, as the candidate of consensus, according to the deal and its implementation plan.

About 100,000 soldiers are expected to protect the process of early elections.

However, this election may be delayed if the opposition-chaired unity government can not stop the armed conflicts that broke out over the last few weeks in different areas of the country where government is almost absent.

The most dangerous of these conflicts is Al Qaeda occupation of a new city in the south-east of the country.

And the second most dangerous is the war between Al Houthi Shiite fighters and the Sunni Salafi fighters in the north of the country at the border of Saudi Arabia.

Tens of people from both sides were killed and injured so far over the last few weeks.

For Al Qaeda, at mid night of Saturday,January 14, 2012, hundreds of Islamic extremists in connection with Al Qaeda occupied parts of the city of Rada'a , in a step that showed the strength of these fighters and weakness of the authorities.

They occupied first a historic mosque, Al Amerya, and a castle overlooking it before they stormed the central prison in the heart of the city and let 52 prisoners go out.

The leader of the group is an Islamic and tribal leader called Tarek Ahmed Nasser Al Dhahab, the brother in law of the Yemeni-American extremist cleric Anwar Al Awlaki who was killed by an American drone with three others on September 30, 2011, in the eastern province of Al Jawf.

In a video recording by Al Dhahab on Wednesday January 18, he said that the first step of establishing what he called Islamic Caliphate has started from his area in Radaa.

Tribal leaders from Al Dhahab tribe, Kaifa, reduced the threats of the man saying he would quit fighting if his brother, Khaled, is released,
Khaled Al Dhahab was arrested in Syria and was handed over to the Yemeni government about four months ago. And he is still in prison of the Political Security,intelligence.
"On Wednesday, the government promised to release Khaled Al Dhahab but they want three men from the tribe to be put in prison as a guarantee that he would not stop violence and his brother Tarik would withdraw from the places he is controlling," Sheikh Zaid Yahya Al Riymi from Kaifa tribe and who is involved in the tribal mediation.

" The situation is very difficult,but we are optimistic to find a solution and save blood," said Al Riyami.

The deputy minister of interior, Mohammed Al Kawsi, said Tuesday the city of Rada'a is surrounded by the security forces but they will wait until suitable decision is taken by the military and security committee chaired by vice president.

Earlier in the day, Al Qaeda fighters kidnapped 11 soldiers from a check point at the outskirt of Rada'a city where one of Al Qaeda fighters was killed.

The House of Representatives was unable to do anything over these developments as it was waiting for the government to come back from their first visit to the Gulf countries where they went to seek economic and political support.

The opposition prime minister, Mohammed Salem Basondaw and 8 ministers returned to Sanaa on Tuesday January 17.

Last week, the opposition-chaired unity government approved a law draft that would grant president Ali Abdullah Saleh and some opposition leaders who were ruling with him one day during the 33-year rule, immunity from prosecution.

The most important opposition leaders who are expected to be included in the immunity law are those who led the anti-Saleh protests during 2011, after they were essential partners with Saleh.

The defected general Ali Muhsen, and the extremist cleric, Abdul Majeed Al Zandani, who is wanted for US and UN for terror charges, are both among those who need immunity.

Sources close to the opposition say the opposition figures who need immunity are 16 politicians.

One of them also is the Islamic and tribal leader, the billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, who is accused of orchestrating and mainly funding the anti- Saleh revolution,

The immunity from prosecution for the leaders of the conflicting parties is the essential part of a Saudi-led and internationally supported gulf deal for peaceful transfer of power.

The deal and immunity are both refused by the protesters in the streets, although their leaders signed the deal in November 23, 2011,and approved the immunity law earlier this month.

The UN envoy, Jamal Bin Omar arrived in Yemen last week to help and push the conflicting parties to continue implementation of the GCC deal according to its step-by-step and scheduled plan of implementation.

Preparations for early elections in full swing despite obstacles

2012-01-19T09:21:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,19/01/2012

Next Monday January 23, the Members of Yemeni Parliament from both opposition and ruling party will vote for a controversial immunity law after it was amended to make the protection from prosecution for specific leaders from opposition and ruling party including President Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to sources from both sides.

The would-be immunity law is considered to be the essence of internationally and regionally supported deal signed by the Yemeni conflicting parties in Saudi capital Riyadh last November.

On February 21st, 2012, a new president for Yemen will be elected in an early election agreed upon by all conflicting parties to end the one-year long political crisis.

Preparations for the February elections are in full swing despite the fact that the two conflicting parties (opposition and ruling) are required to nominate only the current vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, as the candidate of consensus, according to the deal and its implementation plan.

About 100,000 soldiers are expected to protect the process of early elections.

However, this election may be delayed if the opposition-chaired unity government can not stop the armed conflicts that broke out over the last few weeks in different areas of the country where government is almost absent.

The most dangerous of these conflicts is Al Qaeda occupation of a new city in the south-east of the country.

And the second most dangerous is the war between Al Houthi Shiite fighters and the Sunni Salafi fighters in the north of the country at the border of Saudi Arabia.

Tens of people from both sides were killed and injured so far over the last few weeks.

For Al Qaeda, at mid night of Saturday,January 14, 2012, hundreds of Islamic extremists in connection with Al Qaeda occupied parts of the city of Rada'a , in a step that showed the strength of these fighters and weakness of the authorities.

They occupied first a historic mosque, Al Amerya, and a castle overlooking it before they stormed the central prison in the heart of the city and let 52 prisoners go out.

The leader of the group is an Islamic and tribal leader called Tarek Ahmed Nasser Al Dhahab, the brother in law of the Yemeni-American extremist cleric Anwar Al Awlaki who was killed by an American drone with three others on September 30, 2011, in the eastern province of Al Jawf.

In a video recording by Al Dhahab on Wednesday January 18, he said that the first step of establishing what he called Islamic Caliphate has started from his area in Radaa.

Tribal leaders from Al Dhahab tribe, Kaifa, reduced the threats of the man saying he would quit fighting if his brother, Khaled, is released,
Khaled Al Dhahab was arrested in Syria and was handed over to the Yemeni government about four months ago. And he is still in prison of the Political Security,intelligence.
"On Wednesday, the government promised to release Khaled Al Dhahab but they want three men from the tribe to be put in prison as a guarantee that he would not stop violence and his brother Tarik would withdraw from the places he is controlling," Sheikh Zaid Yahya Al Riymi from Kaifa tribe and who is involved in the tribal mediation.

" The situation is very difficult,but we are optimistic to find a solution and save blood," said Al Riyami.

The deputy minister of interior, Mohammed Al Kawsi, said Tuesday the city of Rada'a is surrounded by the security forces but they will wait until suitable decision is taken by the military and security committee chaired by vice president.

Earlier in the day, Al Qaeda fighters kidnapped 11 soldiers from a check point at the outskirt of Rada'a city where one of Al Qaeda fighters was killed.

The House of Representatives was unable to do anything over these developments as it was waiting for the government to come back from their first visit to the Gulf countries where they went to seek economic and political support.

The opposition prime minister, Mohammed Salem Basondaw and 8 ministers returned to Sanaa on Tuesday January 17.

Last week, the opposition-chaired unity government approved a law draft that would grant president Ali Abdullah Saleh and some opposition leaders who were ruling with him one day during the 33-year rule, immunity from prosecution.

The most important opposition leaders who are expected to be included in the immunity law are those who led the anti-Saleh protests during 2011, after they were essential partners with Saleh.

The defected general Ali Muhsen, and the extremist cleric, Abdul Majeed Al Zandani, who is wanted for US and UN for terror charges, are both among those who need immunity.

Sources close to the opposition say the opposition figures who need immunity are 16 politicians.

One of them also is the Islamic and tribal leader, the billionaire Hamid Al Ahmar, who is accused of orchestrating and mainly funding the anti- Saleh revolution,

The immunity from prosecution for the leaders of the conflicting parties is the essential part of a Saudi-led and internationally supported gulf deal for peaceful transfer of power.

The deal and immunity are both refused by the protesters in the streets, although their leaders signed the deal in November 23, 2011,and approved the immunity law earlier this month.

The UN envoy, Jamal Bin Omar arrived in Yemen last week to help and push the conflicting parties to continue implementation of the GCC deal according to its step-by-step and scheduled plan of implementation.

Yemen amends immunity law, Saleh still protected

2012-01-19T07:22:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters, 19/01/2012

By Mohammed Ghobari

SANAA- A Yemeni draft law granting immunity to the outgoing president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, from prosecution over the killing of protesters was amended on Thursday to limit the protection his aides would enjoy, a minister said.

The draft law, which has been heavily criticized by rights groups, the United Nations and Yemeni protesters, will now shield the aides only in "political cases," Legal Affairs Minister Mohammad Makhlafi told Reuters.

It had previously offered blanket immunity to associates of Saleh, who will still get full protection himself, Makhlafi said, without elaborating on what kinds of cases could be tried.

Under a power transfer plan hammered out by Yemen's wealthier Gulf neighbors and signed by Saleh in November, the veteran leader was promised legal immunity to help ease him out of office and end months of protests against his 33-year rule.

Rights groups say hundreds of protesters were killed by security forces in the uprising, which was punctuated by bursts of street fighting between Saleh loyalists and their foes.

Yemenis angry at the draft law are still taking to the streets calling for Saleh to be put on trial and U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay earlier this month warned the immunity offer could violate international law.

Discussion of the law in parliament has repeatedly been put off, but Makhlafi said it would now take place on Saturday.

The United States has defended the draft law as the only way to coax Saleh from power, but question remain over his intentions after he reversed a pledge to leave Yemen before presidential elections in February.

Washington and neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia are keen for the plan to work, fearing protracted political upheaval will let al Qaeda's regional Yemen-based wing establish a foothold along oil shipping routes through the Red Sea.

Islamist militants this week seized the town of Radda, about 170 km (100 miles) southeast of the capital Sanaa, underscoring those concerns.

A tribesman negotiating with the militants on behalf of the government said their leader, Tareq al-Dahab, had refused to withdraw unless a council was set up to run the town according to Islamic law and 15 prisoners suspected of links to al Qaeda were released, including his brother Nail.

Dahab is related to Anwar al-Awlaki, a U. s. citizen whom Washington accused of a leadership role in the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda, and assassinated in a drone strike last year.

The tribesman, Sheikh Sale al-Jawfi, said Islamism fighters from Aryan and Shaw provinces had made their way to Radar to join militant ranks, adding that armed tribesmen were taking up positions in another part of the town.

Sale's opponents have accused him of deliberately ceding territory to Psalmists to prove his argument that only he stands in the way of an al Qaeda takeover in Yemen, from where the global militant network has previously launched abortive attacks.

Yemen Islamists say to quit town if prisoners freed

2012-01-18T10:50:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters, 18/01/2013

SANAA-Yemeni Islamist fighters who seized a small town southeast of the capital Sanaa this week have said they will withdraw if several comrades are released from jail, tribal sources said on Wednesday.

Yemeni tribesmen negotiating with the militants on behalf of the government said Tareq al-Dahab, leader of the group that took over Radda about 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Sanaa, agreed to go if his brother Nabil and several others were freed.

Dahab is related to Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen whom Washington accused of a leadership role in the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda, and assassinated in a drone strike last year.

Radda's capture underscored U.S. fears that political turmoil in Yemen over the fate of President Ali Abdullah Saleh will give al Qaeda a foothold near shipping routes through the Red Sea and may spread to world No. 1 oil exporter Saudi Arabia.

Dozens of militants entered Radda on Sunday, expanding militant control outside the southern province of Abyan, where they have captured several towns since an uprising against Saleh began early last year.

Residents of Radda said the streets were empty and shops stayed shut on Wednesday.

Saleh formally handed over power to his deputy late last year, in line with a Gulf-brokered plan to end months of mass protests and bursts of open combat between his forces and those of a rebel general and tribal militias.

Under the deal hammered out by Yemen's wealthier neighbours, Saleh's General People's Congress and opposition parties divided up cabinet posts between them, forming a unity government to steer the country towards presidential elections in February.

But question marks remain over the intentions of the veteran leader, who recently said he would stay in Yemen, reversing a pledge to leave for the United States.

His opponents accuse him of ceding territory to Islamists to bolster his claim that his rule alone keeps al Qaeda from growing strong in Yemen, and ultimately aiming to retain power by sabotaging the transition deal.

Washington, which long backed Saleh as key to its "counter-terrorism" policy, endorses the transition plan. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that Saleh was failing to meet his pledges under the deal and that Washington was "focused on the threat posed by al Qaeda in Yemen".

Yemen's presidential elections may be delayed after Al Qaeda took control over new city

2012-01-17T01:02:00.000-08:00

Source: Voice of America, 17/01:2012

Yemen's foreign minister says a presidential election planned for next month may have to be delayed because of security problems in the country.
In an interview broadcast Tuesday on al-Arabiya television, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi said if Yemen does not deal with the security issues it will be “difficult” hold elections on February 21.
His comments come days after al-Qaida militants took control of the southern town of Radda. Islamist militants also control other areas of the country's south.

The election is part of a Gulf-brokered plan to end nearly a year of unrest sparked by calls to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Under the agreement, Mr. Saleh handed authority to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is the consensus candidate of major parties in the election.
Yemen's interim government approved a law earlier this month granting Mr. Saleh immunity from “legal and judicial prosecution” for any alleged crimes committed during his 33-year rule.
Pro-democracy activists have criticized the transition deal, saying they want Mr. Saleh and his powerful relatives to stand trial for a government crackdown on protests in which hundreds of people have been killed.

Al Qaeda storms a new city south-east Yemen

2012-01-15T03:38:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters, 15/01/2012

SANAA- Dozens of al Qaeda militants have seized a small town about 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Yemen's capital Sanaa, a police source and witnesses said on Sunday.

They said the militants entered the town of Radda in al-Baydah province on Saturday night with little resistance from a small contingent of police and seized an ancient citadel and mosque.

The capture of Radda expands militant control outside the southern province of Abyan, where they have taken over several towns since an uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh began early last year that culminated with a power transfer deal in November.

Residents in Radda, which has a population of 60,000, said the group was led by Tareq al-Dahab, a suspected militant who had been handed over by Syria to Yemen recently while trying to infiltrate to Iraq.

Dahab is a brother-in-law of U.S.-born Muslim cleric linked to al Qaeda who was killed in an air strike last year.

Yahia Abu Usba, deputy head of the Yemeni Socialist Party and a Saleh critic, charged that the security forces appeared to have done very little to stop the militants from entering Radda and warned that al Qaeda was planning to strike at the oil-rich Maarib Province next, bringing it closer to Sanaa.

No Yemeni officials were immediately available for a comment.

The United States and Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter which helped broker the Gulf deal that allowed Saleh to transfer power to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, have been worried that al Qaeda was expanding its control in the impoverished Arab state next to key oil shipping lanes.

Saleh critics have accused the outgoing president, who still wields a great deal of power through his family control of security forces despite handing over power, of turning a blind eye to the militants' expansion to show that his rule was important to keep al Qaeda out. He denies the charges.

Thousands of displaced Yemenis return to area controlled by al-Qaida-linked militants

2012-01-15T03:06:00.000-08:00

Source: Associated Press,15/01/2012

SANAA, Yemen — At least 2,000 displaced Yemenis returned home Friday to a restive area in the country’s south that has been under the control of al-Qaida-linked militants for more than seven months.

Their return to Zinjibar, the provincial capital of Abyan province, provides some of the first civilian views of the Islamic rule the militants have begun to set up in the poorly governed hinterlands of the Arab world’s poorest country: A zone where armed men from a various Arab countries move about in new Toyota trucks and vow to implement strict Islamic law.

The militants have taken advantage of the security collapse across Yemen during 11 months of mass protests calling for the ouster of longtime autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh. A wily politician who has ruled for 33 years, Saleh is due to transfer power later this month to his vice president under a U.S.-backed deal brokered by Yemen’s powerful Persian Gulf neighbors.

The U.S. has long considered Saleh a necessary ally in combatting Yemen’s active al-Qaida branch, which has been linked to terror attacks on U.S. soil and is believed to be one of the international terror organization’s most dangerous franchises.

Militants began seizing territory in Yemen’s southern Abyan province last spring, solidifying their control over the town of Jaar in April before taking the provincial capital, Zinjibar, in May. They call their organization Ansar al-Shariah, or Partisans of Shariah, which is linked to al-Qaida.

Yemeni security forces have been trying unsuccessfully to push them out since then in fierce fighting that has caused regular casualties on both sides. The conflict has forced tens of thousands of civilians from Zinjibar and the surrounding area to flee, many to the port city of Aden.

Some made their first efforts to return last month, staging two marches from Aden. Both times, militants turned them back, saying the city wasn’t safe.

But Saturday’s return was coordinated with the militant group. More than 2,000 residents entered Zinjibar, where the militants welcomed them with carbonated drinks and cookies then slaughtered cows for dinner, said resident Abdel-Hakim al-Marqashi.

Before dinner, however, all gathered in the city center for an address by a man called “Abu Hamza,” who was introduced as the prince of what the militants declared a new Islamic state.

Al-Marqashi said Abu Hamza told the crowd that they were now “safe and secure,” and that the leaders of the Islamic emirate will work to restore services like water and electricity and impose justice according to Islamic Shariah law.

Abu Hamza said the group had set up an Islamic court to deal with crimes and problems between residents.

Residents were shocked by the destruction left by months of clashes between militants and the army.

“Zinjibar has been turned into a city of ghosts,” said Mohammed al-Marfadi. He said the town, once home to more than 100,000 people, was virtually empty except for the armed men cruising the streets in pickup trucks and motorcycles with mounted machine guns.

Most of the city center is in ruins, he said, and all government offices have been destroyed or burned. Charred cars litter the streets, while some roads are pockmarked with craters from artillery strikes.

Militants manning anti-aircraft guns occupied military posts throughout the city, residents said.

A regional army commander, Brig. Gen. Mohammed al-Somali, said the residents have the right to return home, but cautioned that “the citizens must not allow al-Qaida to use them as human shields or to use their homes to fire at army positions.”

“Should this happen, we’ll respond with all force,” he told reporters Saturday in Aden.

The returning residents expressed mixed feelings about the militants now in control of Zinjibar.

“Ansar al-Shariah and al-Qaida are not atrocious beings from some other planet,” said Wagdi al-Shabi. “We found them to be people like us, of flesh and blood. What makes them better is their belief and their jihad for the victory of Islam and to help the less fortunate.”

But another resident, Hussein Qadri, said bearded men now run the ruined city like a military camp.

“If the situation is that scary during the day, imagine what it will be like at night,” he said. Qadri was among the few hundred residents who left the city before nightfall.

The nearby town of Jaar, which the same militant group has controlled for the past nine months, may provide the best idea of what lies ahead for Zinjibar.

Security has returned to Jaar and shops and coffee houses are open, said Jameel Rawih, who visited the town Saturday. The militants oversee the marketplace and ensure that women cover their faces in public and that men, too, dress modestly.

Strict Islamic law is firmly imposed. Town residents say the militants have cut off the hands of people convicted of stealing, and executed some people convicted either of murder or of spying for the Yemeni army.

20 killed in Sunni-Shiite conflict in Yemen

2012-01-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

Source:AP,12/01/2012

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni security officials say 20 fighters have been killed in new clashes between an ultraconservative Islamist group and former Shiite rebels in the country’s north.

Tensions between the groups have reignited since President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a U.S.-backed deal in November to pass power to his vice president. Yemen has been badly shaken by 10 months of protests calling for Saleh’s ouster.

The fighting pitted Shiite Hawthis against Sunni Salafi Islamists. Ten died on each side, officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity according to military protocol.

The Hawthis fought a bloody six-year war against Saleh’s government that ended with a cease-fire last year. Yemen’s Salafis practice a hard-line interpretation of Islam similar to al-Qaida’s.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Opposition-chaired government approves amnesty law for President Saleh and his aides and opponents

2012-01-09T09:41:00.000-08:00

Source: CNN,09/01/2012

Sanaa-The Yemeni cabinet has approved the draft of a law that will give President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his aides immunity from prosecution.

The draft was submitted to parliament for approval and is expected to be approved within days, said Yahya al-Arasi, a senior vice presidential aide.

Ghaleb al-Odaini, the spokesman for the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), said the law will pass but expect lawmakers to make changes to it before approving it.

Under the terms of a Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered deal, Saleh has agreed to step down as president on February 21 in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

The law, if approved in its current form, will also give immunity to officials who worked under Saleh during his 33-year rule.

A day after the draft was approved, thousands of protesters rallied Monday in more than a dozen provinces against the proposal.

Some waved banners that showed a picture of Saleh holding a butcher knife in his bloodied hands.

Others, however, saw the merit in the proposal.

"We are against the immunity bill, but it will play a big role in ending the Saleh family rule in Yemen and give us a chance to build a new nation," said Abdullah al-Kuraimi, a youth activist in Sanaa.

Yemen's Prime Minister Mohammed Basendowah defended the immunity bill saying that it will help Yemen avoid violence through the immunity.

"We granted President Saleh immunity to rid the country from a civil war or possible bloodshed," he said.

He said it was a necessary political solution.

"For those who think a revolution can force Saleh out of power, they can try," he said.

Senior Saleh aides said the president will head to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment after he steps down.

Meanwhile, parliamentarians argued vehemently Monday with Saleh's aides refusing to accept Vice President Abdu Rabu Hadi as the unified candidate for the February 21 presidential elections.

Sultan Barakani, the head of the ruling General People Congress bloc in parliament, said discussions on Hadi should be delayed until February, giving time for Saleh's immunity law to pass.

Aides to Hadi have accused Saleh -- both of whom are in the same political party -- of being behind the rising tensions, whether by sitting quietly as his supporters chastised Hadi or siding against the vice president.

The vice presidential aides said that Saleh and his supporters appear unhappy with Hadi's actions in recent months, including his steadily decreasing the powers of the president and his most ardent loyalists.

Yemen president capitalizes on his political wits

2012-01-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

Source: Los Angeles Times

By Jeffrey Fleishman and Zaid al-Alayaa,

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has managed to sidestep his promise to resign by deftly manipulating Yemen's multiplying dangers to his own benefit.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh is as relentless as he is cunning, promising to step aside yet remaining very much in power even after nearly a year of deadly rebellion has edged his impoverished nation to the brink of implosion.

Bearing the scars from an assassination attempt last year, Saleh, who has transferred duties to his vice president, still holds an uncanny sway over the country he has ruled for 33 years. He has been maneuvering for his son and nephews to retain control of Yemen's military and security agencies, and last week he startled many by canceling a trip to the U.S. for medical treatment.

Saleh has deftly, if erratically, manipulated Yemen's multiplying dangers. But since November, when he signed an agreement backed by Washington and Saudi Arabia to cede power, his attention has focused on escaping prosecution and consolidating his family's grip on key institutions. The opposition accused him over the weekend of using sleight-of-hand ploys to again sidestep his promise to step down.

Pressure on his government has increased because of the growing influence of the Islamist party, Islah, a leading voice in labor unrest and dissident movements. At the same time, Al Qaeda militants are assassinating his security officials and battling his army in southern towns in a conflict that has left the U.S. concerned about the expansion of terrorism in the Arabian Peninsula.

Saleh, a former tank commander who survived a rocket attack on his compound in June, has proved more resilient than his toppled contemporaries, including the late Moammar Kadafi in Libya and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. He can leave the country, as he did to recuperated in Saudi Arabia for months, and return to even more bloodshed and political disarray, yet somehow stay a step ahead of his enemies.

Yemen's many threats and Saleh's mercurial gambits have made the nation unique in the revolts that have swept the Arab world over the last year. Protesters face more than a stubborn despot. Their rallying cries have been subsumed by struggles involving larger forces, including mutinous soldiers, rival tribes, a secessionist movement in the south and sporadic war between security forces and rebels in the north.

The nation, which often seems at the brink of bursting, as it did in the 1994 civil war, appears inured to conflict like a well-armed dysfunctional family that has learned to share a battered house. But many now suggest the momentum against Saleh is too daunting for him to survive.

"Saleh has resisted stepping down for the last year and every time he's agreed to a deal he's broken his promise," said Jamal Anam, an opposition member. "But the president will not be able to stop the wheel of change. Saleh will become more and more isolated."

The transfer of power agreement was expected to ease tension. The pact called for Saleh to hand authority to Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi in preparation for a presidential election next month. Saleh has vowed that once a new president, widely expected to be Hadi, is in place, he will formally step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution. This proviso has angered hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding Saleh's arrest.

"The signing of the deal did not satisfy the demonstrators in the streets," said Ali Saif Hassan, an analyst and head of the Political Development Forum. "The West has to think more creatively to pressure for a national dialogue. It can convince political forces by freezing their assets and bank accounts."

Saleh's maneuvering since the deal has left Yemenis and the international community at times feeling whiplashed. His announcement last month about plans to travel to the U.S. caught many in Yemen off guard.

The proposal put Washington in the sensitive predicament of possibly offering refuge to a reviled autocrat who also has been a U.S. ally in fighting Al Qaeda. But Saleh, as he often does to keep his opponents exasperated, reversed himself Saturday, suggesting his absence would imperil stability at a time Islah is plotting to paralyze state offices.

There were also indications Saleh would not be treated with the pomp the U.S. usually gives a head of state. Ahmed Sofi, the president's spokesman, said Saleh made "compromises and sacrifices" to Washington by agreeing to step down and "if President Obama or a high-ranking official in the U.S. won't receive him, we do not want to go."

The deepening political tumult in Yemen is a sign of Islah's attempt to strike at the core of Saleh's power. The Islamist organization, which is intent on creating an Islamic state that would certainly run counter to U.S. interests, has instigated unrest in federal and local government agencies. Seizing on national anger over public corruption, Islah has called for the firing of school principals and top government officials.

The strategy threatens to roil the military and intelligence establishments controlled by Saleh's family. It is an indication that the politically shrewd Saleh may be finding it difficult to counter elements more powerful than hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators.

Employees at the September 26 newspaper, a mouthpiece for the military, have demanded the resignation of Ali Shatar, chief editor and head of Moral Guidance, an agency with the Defense Ministry. The manager of state-controlled Yemen TV and several of his executives were forced to flee their offices after fistfights broke out between workers and a production manager over graft.

Islah, the country's main opposition party, has been moving to steer the protest movement. It competes in Change Square, the epicenter of anti-Saleh sentiment in Sana, the capital, with socialists, students, nationalists, tribes, Houthi rebels and others in what represents an often violent mosaic of dissent.

Saleh has often warned that Islah is a front for a dangerous brand of radicalism. He has repeatedly played on fear of Islamic extremism, especially resonant in the West, as a way to enhance his power. However, Saleh critic Hassan Zaid, head of an opposition party, also warned recently that "the world will be surprised when Al Qaeda, the militant wing of the Islah, controls Yemen."

Among Islah's more prominent personalities are the ultraconservative Sheik Abdul Majeed Zindani, a henna-bearded cleric who is considered a terrorist by the U.S. and was once a spiritual mentor to Osama bin Laden, and defector Gen. Ali Mohsen Ahmar, whose 1st Armored Division has clashed with Saleh loyalists in the capital. But the group also has less radical members such as Tawakul Karman, a human rights activist who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.

The neighborhoods around Saleh's palace in Sana have been carved up by warring factions, including one funded by a billionaire telecommunications tribesman and another led by Saleh's son, Ahmed, commander of the Republican Guard. Artillery blasts and power blackouts are common. On Sunday, Saleh's forces shelled a neighborhood, killing three people.

"Saleh will ultimately be forced to leave the country, but not now," said Ahmed Zurqah, a political analyst. "He has to make sure his family and the political loyalists around him are not harmed and the nation doesn't shatter."

Yemen rises up against its mini-dictators

2012-01-05T04:00:00.000-08:00

Source: Guardian.co.uk,
By: Abubakr al-Shamahi

In a 'parallel revolution', Yemenis are challenging President Saleh's henchmen, who run institutions as personal fiefdoms.

In the current state of confusion in Yemen, with the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and his family attempting to retain control behind the scenes even though he is officially due to leave office in February, Yemeni protesters have a new tactic.

A "parallel revolution" of anti-corruption protests and strikes is seeking to remove the mini-dictators – Saleh's lieutenants who are in charge of the various state institutions and the bloated state bureaucracy.

Ten months after the start of anti-government protests, and with the country's future steeped in uncertainty, Yemenis are determined to ensure that real change is the fruit of their sacrifices.

A dictator's power comes from having the ability to surround himself with a loyal group of henchmen, the faithful minions who will ensure that power remains in the hands of the leader. Without such followers it is impossible to rule dictatorially.

Over his 33 years at the helm, Saleh has managed to build an effective network of partisans, people who aid him in controlling the various branches of the state, and yet also know that they are only in their position because of their loyalty to Saleh.

In turn, Saleh allows these men to get rich and to run their institutions as personal fiefdoms. These corrupt officials have siphoned off millions, most likely billions, in a country that is ranked as the poorest in the Arab world. This nouveau riche group are busy building villas and mansions on the edge of Sana'a, Yemen's capital. In the meantime, the city is running out of water because of mismanagement and poor infrastructure.

Weak state institutions mean that officials can get away with many illegitimate practices. Contracts are given out to friends and family, or simply the person willing to grease officials' hands with the most money. Yemen's oil and natural resources industry – its main (but dwindling) source of income – is notoriously corrupt, with oil revenues under-reported and educational scholarships from oil money going to the children of high officials.

The Yemeni mini-dictators abuse their power in other ways. There have been reports of military officers running "personal prisons" and taking money from officers' salaries.

One protester at a government office in the city of Taiz said his boss had put a gun to his head only the week before. The boss, at first confused, and then angry, was barred from entering the building by the protester and his colleagues.

Such scenes have been replicated across the country, and across a wide array of government institutions – any success giving encouragement to other workers tired of their overlords. And they have met with success in many cases now.

One video shows Abubakr al-Amoodi, a military man who heads the Civil Status Office, being hounded out of the building. The employees line the path cheering his exit.

Saleh has realised the seriousness of this situation, and has cancelled his planned trip to the US. He has apparently been hoping to negate the impact of the forthcoming handover of power to his vice-president by retaining control over military and government institutions. That plan now appears to be in serious danger of falling to pieces. It is no accident that the bosses under the most pressure now are Saleh's men.

The protests and strikes also expose the fact most Yemenis do not believe that any real change will come out of the "transition" deal negotiated by the Gulf Cooperation Council. The deal has brought about very little that could be claimed as a real success for the revolution. The Saleh family remain in their positions and are not barred from any future entry into politics. The latest round of protests should send a signal to Washington, and Riyadh, that Yemeni protesters cannot be quietened so easily.

Instead, it seems that the impending removal of Saleh from the presidency has given Yemenis a taste for removing others that they do not like from positions of authority. They will be looking for their next corrupt target very soon.

A difficult road ahead for Yemen's political transition o

2011-12-31T07:39:00.000-08:00

Source: Foreign Policy,31/12:2011
Posted By David W. Alley, Abdulghani Al Iryani.

On Nov. 23, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh belatedly fulfilled his pledge to sign the GCC initiative. His signing potentially opened space for a peaceful transfer of power and far-reaching reforms. Yet, such a positive outcome is far from guaranteed and will largely depend on how domestic and international actors tackle three interrelated challenges: 1) preventing political infighting and spoilers from derailing the accord's implementation; 2) demonstrating tangible progress by providing security and basic services to Yemeni citizens; and 3) addressing two key weaknesses of the initiative, political inclusiveness and transitional justice.

First proposed in April 2011, the GCC initiative outlined a "30-60 Transition Plan" whereby the president would transfer power to his vice president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, after one month in exchange for immunity from prosecution. An opposition-led coalition government would then hold presidential elections two months after the president's resignation.

The agreement and accompanying implementation mechanisms signed on Nov. 23 retain this basic framework and timeline with important exceptions. The most notable among these is that Saleh will retain his position along with limited authorities until elections are held on Feb. 21, 2011. It also established a steering committee to oversee the restoration of security and the reintegration of military/security forces. Moreover, it greatly expanded on the original agreement by providing much needed clarification on questions of responsibility, sequencing, and oversight.

As currently defined, the transitional period is divided into two phases. The first lasts approximately three months, from the signing of the initiative until early elections on Feb. 21, 2011. During this time, the president delegates significant authority to Hadi, an opposition-led coalition government is established, and preparations are made for early presidential elections in which the vice president is the consensus candidate. Phase two begins after elections and consists of a two-year period devoted to national dialogue and constitutional reform.

All things considered, implementation is going relatively smoothly and political leaders are meeting key agreement benchmarks. Shortly following signature, the vice president issued a presidential decree calling for early elections. Then, on Dec. 10 , a national unity government was officially sworn in. The new government is headed by an opposition prime minister and ministerial portfolios are divided equally between the opposition and the president's party, the General People's Congress (GPC). In late November and early December, intense fighting in the flashpoint city of Taiz threatened to undermine the agreement, but by Dec. 4 local mediators secured a ceasefire. That same day, Hadi formed the Military Affairs Committee tasked with overseeing military/security de-escalation and restructuring. The committee began clearing streets of checkpoints in Sanaa and other cities on Dec. 17 and they plan to complete the task within one week. In short, the technicalities of the agreement are being implemented, yet many challenges remain, not least of which is a political environment with a lack of trust, desperate economic and humanitarian conditions, and significant inclusion and justice deficits in the agreement itself.

Political infighting and potential spoilers

The most critical challenge during phase one arguably will be keeping signatories moving in the same direction and holding potential spoilers at bay. This will be especially difficult in the military/security sector where progress has been comparatively slow and where the principle of "no victor, no vanquished" has left intact the two armed power-centers: the army and security forces controlled by Saleh's family on the one hand and a combination of defected army units controlled by General Ali Mohsen, tribesmen loyal to the al-Ahmar clan, and Islah-controlled militias, on the other.

Because both sides have maintained their positions, and each is deeply suspicious of the other, it would be imprudent to begin with fundamental military or security restructuring. Instead, the first priority should be on coordinated de-escalation. This appears to be happening, as the Military Affairs Committee has called for the removal of all checkpoints and roadblocks, the return of military units to their barracks and, a return of militias to their villages, all of which is to be completed by Dec. 24. If carried out, these measures will go far in restoring a sense of normalcy and security to the capital and other affected cities.

Assuming successful implementation, these steps could then set the stage for the kind of in-depth institutional restructuring that is necessary to establish civilian control over the military. This would entail standardized hiring, firing, and retirement practices as well as the regular rotation of military and security officers. By addressing such matters only after elections are held, the authorities can satisfy the widespread public desire to remove -- or at least clearly restrict the influence of -- certain military officers, while at the same time avoiding a precipitous approach that carries the potential of provoking a stalemate or, worse, armed confrontation, during the first phase.

So far, international scrutiny has focused almost exclusively on Saleh. That might have been understandable in the past, but it no longer can suffice. At one point or another, each of the armed groups mentioned above has been responsible for violence and contributed to an environment where human rights violations have occurred; going forward, either side could torpedo meaningful implementation of the agreement. Henceforth, the international community will need to closely monitor all parties and hold them accountable -- including publicly reprimanding and sanctioning those proven uncooperative.

In addition to military and security obstacles, the agreement could be undermined by political infighting both within the coalition government and among political parties. Already, the opposition has charged the GPC with a number of violations, including destroying documents in sensitive ministries like interior, finance, and justice. For its part, the GPC accuses the opposition of planning to violate the spirit of the initiative by, among other things, using its ministerial portfolios to proceed with investigations and prosecution of regime insiders. GPC supporters also complain that the opposition has yet to fulfill its commitment under the agreement to halt any direct support for the protests. To date, media outlets on both sides have made deeply inflammatory statements, stoking tensions and undermining the potential for cooperation.

Encouraging opposing parties to honor their commitments under the initiative and to work together will be a constant challenge. While international actors must play an important monitoring role in this respect, so too should domestic oversight agencies and civil society groups. Domestic tools exist, including the civil service law which governs hiring and firing within ministries. Enforcement of this law could minimize the risk of politicization of bureaucratic decisions and more clearly circumscribe political conflict. International monitors also could work closely with the Central Organization for Control and Audit in overseeing corruption. The abuse of public finance was a central grievance against the Saleh regime and many Yemenis are now concerned that the opposition will be tempted to commit similar abuses. As with the military/security sector, control over the public finances sector must be shared, transparent, and closely monitored to ensure balance and to reduce tensions during the transition. Independent youth activists, their strong misgivings about the GCC initiative notwithstanding, can play a role by pressuring the government as well as political parties to operate lawfully, transparently, and in keeping with their pledges of reform.

Delivering Security and Basic Services

A successful political transition will also depend on the government's capacity to produce tangible progress in the lives of ordinary citizens, notably in the realms of security and basic services. As noted, some improvement has been made on the security front through the Military Affairs Committee. Among other needs, the priorities should be returning electricity and water provision to pre-crisis levels as well as stabilizing the price of, and improving access to, diesel and petrol. Meeting these objectives will not be possible without substantial international financial assistance, which ought to be closely monitored by donors. Insofar as possible, donors should discourage reactivation of petrol and diesel subsidies, a step with potentially dire fiscal consequences.

Political Inclusiveness and Transitional Justice

The accord is not without critics, or flaws. At its core, it reflects a power-sharing arrangement between the president and his party, the GPC, on one hand and a coalition of political opposition parties, known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), on the other. Largely missing from the arrangement are several important stakeholders, including but not limited to: the Houthi rebels in the north; the southern movement; and an emerging constituency that was particularly active during the uprising, the independent youth. As they and others see it, the initiative is little more than a reshuffling of the deck, a new allocation of authority among elites that -- in one form or another -- have been implicated in the organization of power around Saleh. The principal beneficiaries, they point out, are the GPC and the most influential member of the JMP opposition, the Islamist Islah party, which also enjoys historical ties to the regime. Many also reject the immunity clause, arguing that those responsible for abuses should be investigated and brought to trial.

Establishment of a more inclusive process cannot wait until the onset of the national dialogue. Although reducing tensions among members of the political elite is both legitimate and necessary, a parallel track should be put in place to bring in the three aforementioned groups, lest their exclusion obstruct the government's ability to carry out early elections and a credible dialogue.

Fortunately, the implementation mechanism document mandates that the new government form a liaison committee to communicate with youth groups and it makes clear that the national dialogue in phase two must include all political actors and forces. Yet, thus far, inclusion efforts have taken a back seat to forging elite alliances at the political center between existing political parties. In many ways, the Houthi rebellion in the north, the southern movement, and the youth initiative uprising were a product of the failure of existing political parties and institutions to adequately aggregate and represent popular grievances and demands. As such, it is imperative that immediate action be taken to broaden meaningful inclusion.

Several steps could be taken in this respect. The government should open up direct lines of communication with these three constituencies in order to better understand their views on, as well as objections to, the structure and agenda of the national dialogue. It could also review the findings of existing government and or party-funded studies that have assessed the situation in the south and in Sadaa and consider implementing applicable recommendations. Important confidence-building measures for the south in particular may include: releasing remaining political prisoners (in a welcome step, the government released Hassan Ba-Aum, a prominent southern movement Hiraak leader who calls for southern independence, shortly after it was formed), investigating human rights abuses, removing certain controversial military and security officers, and more assertively facilitating humanitarian access to areas such as Abyan and Aden. Both the GPC and the opposition have been careful to ensure that southerners are well represented in the unity government. This is an important indication of good-will, but it is in no way a substitute for engaging with the southern movement and others regarding their priorities and preferences for the national dialogue.

The GCC initiative also suffers from the insufficient attention it pays to issues of transitional justice and reconciliation. Yemenis are sharply divided over the question of whether Saleh and his supporters ought to enjoy immunity. Many in the opposition insist that regime insiders must be investigated and prosecuted for crimes committed during the uprising; others believe that such an approach would distract the coalition government from its priorities, namely building a new state; still others (essentially Saleh backers), argue that the real criminals are on the opposition side and that individuals such as Ali Mohsen and Hameed al-Ahmar should be brought to trial.

Who should benefit from immunity and how to render justice are divisive, sensitive, and currently unsettled issues. Ignoring them, or putting them aside, risks undermining chances of a lasting political settlement. Still, signatories of the GCC initiative committed themselves to pass immunity legislation for the president and those who have worked with him. Qualms notwithstanding, the signatories should honor their pledge. However, this agreement does not in any way preclude thorough investigation of human rights violations and a serious national discussion regarding matters related to transitional justice. This discussion is essential to prevent cycles of revenge and to address the deeply-felt desire to expose unlawful behavior and compensate victims. In this respect, the country could build on a long national tradition that centers primarily on exposing the truth and compensating victims as opposed to punishing perpetrators. Ultimately, Yemenis will have to determine how to address their past, but it is best that this discussion begin now.

David W. Alley is a Lieutenant-Colonel in the U.S. Army (Retired), a retired Middle East Foreign Area Officer, and is currently the COO of Lime -- Abu Dhabi, a political risk advisory firm. Abdulghani al-Iryani is an independent political analyst based in Sanaa, Yemen.

2011, Year of Change in Yemen

2011-12-29T00:30:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,29/12/2011

Yemen witnessed unprecedented and great events during 2011 like some other Arab countries which were swept by the so-called Arab Spring.

The events changed almost every thing traditional in terms of thinking of the social and political life of people.

Dreams and aspirations and ambitions of almost every one were more than ever before over the recent history of Yemen.

Generally speaking, almost everyone wanted a new Yemen, new State, and new life with freedom,justice and dignity.

Though very little of these general things have been achieved,but the way of realizing dreams and reaching ambitions has become at least clearer and smoother than ever before in history also.

The determination and desire of people to keep going in the same way until all goals and objectives are achieved is still standing after one year of arguments and conflicts at all levels of life.

On November 23rd, 2011, almost all conflicting parties agreed to end the long standing political crisis and they immediately started a long and difficult but allegedly correct road to build the new Yemen where all dreams and ambitions of better life can come true.

On February 21st, 2012, the Yemenis will elect a new President instead of the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The new President will run the country only two years during which a comprehensive national dialogue will be conducted for paving the way for the modern State. A new constitution will be formulated, and referendum on ir will be held.

Then, new presidential elections will be held during 2014, and the elected president will set a date for parliamentary elections.

It's been more than one month now since they started implementing a step-by-step two year long road map for reaching the promised modern and civil State that almost every Yemeni is talking about, though with different views.

The road map, locally called the scheduled implementation plan, was based on an internationally supported deal initiated by the Saudi-led six gulf nations and the UN resolution 2014 on solving the Yemeni crisis.

But different people look differently to what happened during 2011, and what was achieved so far and what might happen and might be achieved during 2012 and after that.

The Weekly interviewed on Monday December 26, 2011, many Yemenis in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on what happened so far and what might happen more from the protests of one year.

Adel A Arrabeai, leading protester and political activist, said that the year 2011 divided the recent history to 'before' and 'after' this date.

" 2011 was the year of the birth of our historic change movement," said Mr Arrabeai.

" It was the year during which we faced major challenges and we achieved major achievements including overthrowing the regime," he added.

The 2012 will be the year of planting and sowing the seeds of the modern and civil State, the long standing dream of Yemenis, Arrabeai expected.

The activist Naif Al Buraiki, disagrees,however, with Mr. Arrabeai, saying the political solution will not work and the conflicts will continue.

"The GCC initiative will fail and more conflicts and more violence and blood shed will happen," said Mr Al Buraiki.

The political analyst, Abdul Khalik Alwan , on his part, said two things might happen during the 2012 in the Arab world in general.

If the Arab Spring was made by the Arab themselves not dictated to them, Mr. Alwan expected a stage of genuine democracy and human rights after removing the rest of the Arab rulers during 2012.

"But if the Arab Spring was not made by the Arab will, and Arab were only actors, then the year 2012 will be the end of hope that Arab can do something," Mr Alwan said.

Mr Baleek Mohammed, political activist,said what happened in Yemen during 2011, was unprecedented uprising against poverty and financial, administrative and political corruption.

Mr Mohammed expected that Islamists in Yemen would dominate because they have more organized members than the other parties.

However, the vice spokesmen of the Yemen ruling party, semi-secular party, Mr Abdul Hafeez Al Nehari excluded any domination of the Islamists in Yemen saying they are not like their counterparts in the other Arab countries like Tunisia and Egypt.

" I do not think the Islamists here in Yemen will dominate because they already tried but failed," said Al Nehari.

The main groups of Islamists in Yemen, especially the brotherhood, have always been participating in all political and democratic processes and never been directly banned like Tunisia or partially banned like Egypt.

"The people tried the Islamists in two coalition governments in the past," said Al
Nehari.

"During this crisis, the Islamists were not democratic enough with other forces like liberals and leftists,"

" So Islamist lost a lot."

Almost every day, Islamists from Islah party, which leads the opposition coalition, fight with others over who would speak in the stage and who would say what in the public squares of protests especially in Sanaa.

They also fight with others on women activities and their clothes.

On Sunday, December 25th, 2011, for instance, about 15 people were injured in big fight with hands and sticks and knives in the stage of the Change Square in Sanaa.

2011, Year of Change in Yemen

2011-12-28T23:54:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,29/12/2011

Yemen witnessed unprecedented and great events during 2011 like some other Arab countries which were swept by the so-called Arab Spring.

The events changed almost every thing traditional in terms of thinking of the social and political life of people.

Dreams and aspirations and ambitions of almost every one were more than ever before over the recent history of Yemen.

Generally speaking, almost everyone wanted a new Yemen, new State, and new life with freedom,justice and dignity.

Though very little of these general things have been achieved,but the way of realizing dreams and reaching ambitions has become at least clearer and smoother than ever before in history also.

The determination and desire of people to keep going in the same way until all goals and objectives are achieved is still standing after one year of arguments and conflicts at all levels of life.

On November 23rd, 2011, almost all conflicting parties agreed to end the long standing political crisis and they immediately started a long and difficult but allegedly correct road to build the new Yemen where all dreams and ambitions of better life can come true.

It's been more than one month now since they started implementing a step-by-step two year long road map for reaching the promised modern and civil State that almost every Yemeni is talking about, though with different views.

The road map, locally called the scheduled implementation plan, was based on an internationally supported deal initiated by the Saudi-led six gulf nations and the UN resolution 2014 on solving the Yemeni crisis.

But different people look differently to what happened during 2011, and what was achieved so far and what might happen and might be achieved during 2012 and after that.

The Weekly interviewed on Monday December 26, 2011, many Yemenis in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on what happened so far and what might happen more from the protests of one year.

Adel A Arrabeai, leading protester and political activist, said that the year 2011 divided the recent history to 'before' and 'after' this date.

" 2011 was the year of the birth of our historic change movement," said Mr Arrabeai.

" It was the year during which we faced major challenges and we achieved major achievements including overthrowing the regime," he added.

The 2012 will be the year of planting and sowing the seeds of the modern and civil State, the long standing dream of Yemenis, Arrabeai expected.

The activist Naif Al Buraiki, disagrees,however, with Mr. Arrabeai, saying the political solution will not work and the conflicts will continue.

"The GCC initiative will fail and more conflicts and more violence and blood shed will happen," said Mr Al Buraiki.

The political analyst, Abdul Khalik Alwan , on his part, said two things might happen during the 2012 in the Arab world in general.

If the Arab Spring was made by the Arab themselves not dictated to them, Mr. Alwan expected a stage of genuine democracy and human rights after removing the rest of the Arab rulers during 2012.

"But if the Arab Spring was not made by the Arab will, and Arab were only actors, then the year 2012 will be the end of hope that Arab can do something," Mr Alwan said.

Mr Baleek Mohammed, political activist,said what happened in Yemen during 2011, was unprecedented uprising against poverty and financial, administrative and political corruption.

Mr Mohammed expected that Islamists in Yemen would dominate because they have more organized members than the other parties.

However, the vice spokesmen of the Yemen ruling party, semi-secular party, Mr Abdul Hafeez Al Nehari excluded any domination of the Islamists in Yemen saying they are not like their counterparts in the other Arab countries like Tunisia and Egypt.

" I do not think the Islamists here in Yemen will dominate because they already tried but failed," said Al Nehari.

The main groups of Islamists in Yemen, especially the brotherhood, have always been participating in all political and democratic processes and never been directly banned like Tunisia or partially banned like Egypt.

"The people tried the Islamists in two coalition governments in the past," said Al
Nehari.

"During this crisis, the Islamists were not democratic enough with other forces like liberals and leftists,"

" So Islamist lost a lot."

Almost every day, Islamists from Islah party, which leads the opposition coalition, fight with others over who would speak in the stage and who would say what in the public squares of protests especially in Sanaa.

They also fight with others on women activities and their clothes.

On Sunday, December 25th, 2011, for instance, about 15 people were injured in big fight with hands and sticks and knives in the stage of the Change Square in Sanaa.

Yemen Government Workers Rally Against Corruption

2011-12-28T07:52:00.000-08:00

Source:AP,28/12/2011

By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press

Labor strikes spread through Yemen Wednesday as workers demanded reforms and dismissal of managers over alleged corruption linked to the country's outgoing president.

Corruption was one of the grievances that ignited mass protests against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in February. After months of stalling, Saleh last month signed an agreement to transfer power.

The deal includes immunity for prosecution for the longtime leader, but protesters reject that. They are also demanding that his relatives and associates, also suspected of corruption, be removed from their posts in the government and military and put on trial.

Months of political turmoil in Yemen, pitting tribes and army units against each other during mass demonstrations as Saleh fought to stay in power, have given the dangerous al-Qaida branch in Yemen more freedom of action. The Islamist militants have taken over territory in Yemen's south, including several towns.

The strikes are following a pattern. Workers lock the gates to an institution, and then they storm the offices of their supervisors, demanding their replacement with bosses who are not tainted with corruption allegations. So far the scenario has played out in 18 state agencies.

"This is the real revolution, the institutions revolution," said Mohammed Gabaal, an 40-year-old accountant who is on strike. "The president has appointed a ring of corrupt people all over government agencies."

The case of the Military Economic Institution stands out. Hundreds of workers demonstrated in front of the building on Wednesday.

The key agency hauls in significant revenues from naval transport and other investments, but its budget is kept secret. Striking workers are demanding dismissal of the agency manager, Hafez Mayad, who is from Saleh's tribe and is seen as one of the regime's most powerful and corrupt figures.

Opponents of the Saleh regime charge that armed civilians who attacked protesters in the capital of Sanaa got their funds from Mayad.

Other strikes are under way at the state TV, Sanaa police headquarters and another institution affiliated with the military.

The wave of strikes began last week when employees of the national airline, Yemenia Airways, walked off their jobs demanding dismissal of the director, Saleh's son-in-law, charging him with plundering the company's assets and driving it into bankruptcy. The government gave in to the demands.

Path is cleared for President Saleh to visit US

2011-12-27T00:11:00.000-08:00

27/12/2011
By Mark Landler and Eric Schmitt

HONOLULU,US — The Obama administration has decided in principle to allow the embattled president of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to enter the United States for medical treatment, subject to certain assurances, two administration officials said
But those conditions — including a proposed itinerary — have not yet been submitted to the American Embassy in Yemen, these officials said, and no visa has yet been issued to Mr. Saleh.

The decision of whether to admit Yemen’s longtime leader has stirred a vigorous debate within the administration, with some officials fearing sharp criticism for appearing to provide a safe haven for a reviled Arab figure accused of responsibility for the death of hundreds of antigovernment protesters.

The complex negotiations over Mr. Saleh’s visa request attest to the high stakes for the administration, which urgently wants to secure room for political progress in Yemen but does not want to allow Mr. Saleh to use a medical visit as a way to shore up his political position. Nor do they want to play into Mr. Saleh’s penchant for keeping people off kilter.

If allowed to enter, Mr. Saleh would be the first Arab leader to request, and to be granted, an extended stay in the United States since political unrest began convulsing the region a year ago.

One administration official said that there was no further “impediment” to issuing Mr. Saleh a visa, and that he could arrive at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital as soon as the end of this week for additional treatment of medical problems stemming from a near-fatal bomb blast in June at the mosque in his presidential complex.

Though the administration had been concerned that approval would anger the many Yemenis eager to see Mr. Saleh prosecuted for the killing of protesters by his security forces, some believe that giving him a way out of Yemen, even temporarily, could help smooth the way to elections next year and perhaps end a political crisis that has brought the government of the impoverished nation to the brink of collapse.

“In the end, we felt there was enough good to be gained that it was worth managing the criticism that we’d get, including any comparisons to past episodes,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the arrangement was still being completed.

The official was referring to President Jimmy Carter’s decision in 1979 to admit the ailing shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, into the United States for medical treatment. That so infuriated the Islamic revolutionaries who had overthrown the shah that they stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage.

Antigovernment activists in Yemen said in recent days that they were worried that the United States would grant Mr. Saleh refuge and that if it did, they would demand he be returned for prosecution at home.

In a statement on Sunday in Hawaii, where President Obama is vacationing this week, the administration said that if Mr. Saleh was granted a visa, it would be only for “legitimate medical treatment.”

On Monday, the White House denied that it had made a decision on whether to grant Mr. Saleh a visa. “U.S. officials are continuing to consider President Saleh’s request to enter the country for the sole purpose of seeking medical treatment,” said the White House’s deputy press secretary, Joshua R. Earnest, “but initial reports that permission has already been granted are not true.”

Still, it appeared that the administration was also looking for a way to help calm the political chaos that has undermined efforts to prevent terrorist groups from operating in Yemen.

“The main goal is to remove him physically from Yemen so there’s no way he can meddle in the political process there,” the official said. “Getting him medical treatment seemed a logical way to do this.”

Mr. Saleh would not be allowed to bring a large entourage or use his visit for political reasons, the official said.

Mr. Saleh contacted the American Embassy in Yemen’s capital, Sana, about the visa, officials said. His lingering injuries from the bomb blast include shrapnel wounds and extensive burns. The most serious medical condition is a balance problem caused by inner-ear damage.

A spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian, Myrna Manners, said she could not confirm whether Mr. Saleh would be going there. “As of now, we are not admitting him to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital,” she said.

After Mr. Saleh’s three decades in power, doubts remain about his motives for departing now. He signed an accord a month ago in Saudi Arabia, agreeing to step down and authorizing an election in February to choose a new president. But until then, he maintains his title and much of his authority. Fears that he might find a way to hang on to power have hampered Yemen’s transition and played a role in the chronic political violence gripping the country, the poorest in the Middle East.

On Saturday, government security forces opened fire on protesters in Sana, killing at least nine people. The demonstrators were protesting a deal that would grant Mr. Saleh legal immunity if he gave up his post.

The United States has found itself in a sometimes awkward position as the unrest in the Arab world has swept through Yemen. The administration conducts extensive counterterrorism operations with the Saleh government on suspected Qaeda cells. It was unclear whether the United States was Mr. Saleh’s first choice for a destination, and as officials weighed his request, some worried that he might stop in other countries and seek support for some kind of effort to stay in power.

“They don’t want him to get back into the game,” said another official, “and everything he’s done since he went to Riyadh suggests he hasn’t entirely given up.”

Part of the problem is divining what the president is thinking. Some American officials seem persuaded by Mr. Saleh’s frequent claims that he has no desire to return to power. Others are less certain.

The two key officials involved in the decision are John O. Brennan, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, and the American ambassador in Yemen, Gerald M. Feierstein. Mr. Brennan almost certainly took the decision to Mr. Obama for final approval, an official said.

On Sunday, Mr. Brennan called Yemen’s vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi, to urge the government to show restraint against protesters, Mr. Earnest said.

“Mr. Brennan emphasized strongly the need for Yemeni security forces to show maximum restraint when dealing with demonstrations, and called upon all sides to refrain from provocative acts that could spur further violence,” Mr. Earnest said.

Vice President Hadi, who is supposed to assume Mr. Saleh’s powers during the transition, told Mr. Brennan that the government would investigate the deaths and injuries, Mr. Earnest said. Shortly after the June bombing, Mr. Saleh was flown to a hospital in Saudi Arabia. But after three months, he returned to Yemen.

On Saturday, Mr. Saleh told reporters that he was leaving “not for treatment, but to get out of sight and the media, to calm the atmosphere for the unity government to hold the presidential election,” according to The Associated Press. Yet that statement seemed calculated for domestic consumption, a Yemeni official said, and Mr. Saleh added that he hoped to return to work as an “opposition figure.”

Mark Landler reported from Honolulu, and Eric Schmitt from Washington. Robert F. Worth contributed reporting from Washington, and Anemona Hartocollis from New York.

Yemeni intelligence officer gunned down in Aden

2011-12-26T01:02:00.000-08:00

Source: Xinhua, 26/12/2011

ADEN, Yemen-- A high-ranking officer of the Yemeni military intelligence agency was gunned down Sunday evening by unidentified assailants in the southern port city of Aden, a security official told Xinhua.

The local security official said on condition of anonymity that three unknown attackers opened fire with barrage of bullets on the vehicle of colonel Hussein al-Bishi, killing him in a main street in Sheikh Othman district in Aden city.

The intelligence officer was hit in the head by a bullet and died at the scene, the official said, adding that the attackers managed to escape after the shooting.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. But the incident bore the hallmarks of the al-Qaida group, according to the official.

A police officer said that after the attack, local government authorities has tightened up the security measures across the port city to deter any armed terrorists to infiltrate into Aden from the neighboring province of Abyan.

Taking advantage of Yemen's unrest to bolster their presence in the country's southern and eastern regions, militants of the al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula have been launching sporadic shoot- outs and motorbike attacks on security and intelligence officials during the past few months.

President Saleh said would travel soon to US

2011-12-24T08:57:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee, 24/12/2011

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh also said he would travel to United States soon but not only for treatment but also for political affairs.

And he said he would return to Yemen to join the opposition through his party after a new president is elected on February 21, 2012.

Saleh accused the Islamist tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar of being behind the terrorist attack on him and his top aides on June 3, 2011.

Saleh also said in a press conference held in his Palace late Saturday, that Hamid Al Ahmar funded the march from Taiz to Sanaa.

Saleh said that the defected general Ali Muhsen has no more than 300 soldiers who still loyal to him now.

Yemen peace and political process making progress, UN says

2011-12-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

Source: UN News, 23/12/2011

Security Council calls on Yemeni parties to ensure political transition

New York– The Security Council today welcomed the progress made so far in implementing the agreement for a peaceful transition of power in Yemen, and called on the parties to ensure that they adhere to the timetable set out for the process.

A new Government of National Unity was sworn in earlier this month in Yemen after warring factions signed an agreement in November on a transitional settlement under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to hand over power to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi.

Yesterday, the Secretary General’s Special Adviser for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, reported that the process is moving forward and the agreement is being implemented, with the Government already having taken action to restore peace and stability.Yesterday, the Secretary General’s Special Adviser for Yemen, Jamal Benomar, reported that the process is moving forward and the agreement is being implemented, with the Government already having taken action to restore peace and stability.

The Council, in a statement read out to the press by Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member body for this month, stated that the political agreement should be implemented in “a transparent and timely manner, and in a spirit of inclusion and reconciliation.”

The agreement followed months of deadly clashes between supporters and opponents of Mr. Saleh and his regime, part of the so-called Arab Spring movement that has swept the Middle East and North Africa this year.

The Council expected the parties “to continue to honour the timetable set out in the agreement, including the presidential elections on 21 February, the national dialogue, the constitutional review and the programme of reforms to tackle the profound security, humanitarian, and economic challenges that Yemen faces,” the statement added.

It also urged all parties to reject violence, and reiterated that all those responsible for violence, human rights violations and abuses should be held accountable.

In addition, the Council emphasized the need for unimpeded humanitarian access to address the growing crisis in the country, where UN relief officials say large segments of the population are enduring chronic deprivation exacerbated by the breakdown of the delivery of essential social services as a result of civil unrest and widespread violence.

Yemen ruling party threatens to change mind if mediators not blame the opposition

2011-12-22T03:13:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee, 22/12/2011

The yemen ruling party threatened to change its mind about the power transfer agreement if the opposition did stop reclaiming.

In a statement the ruling party accused the opposition of seeking to thwart the internationally-supported deal by financing more demonstrations.

The ruling party called the regional and international mediators to interfere for continuation of implementation of the power- transfer deal.

"Or we will take another position in the coming few hours," said the statement.

The opposition organized a demonstration marching from Taiz to Sanaa and the ruling party organized a similar one marching from Sanaa to Taiz.

These two marches show the escalation after relative calm since the conflicting parties signed the GCC initiative and scheduled implementation plan in the Saudi capital Riyadh on November 23, 2011.

The yemeni unity government is expected to submit its program to the Parliament next week.

The opposition members of the parliament( about 60 out of 301) returned to sessions on Tuesday December 20 after about 11 months of boycotting.

The law of immunity from prosecution for senior officials from both sides the ruling party and from the opposition will be issued by the Parliament after voting on the new government program over the few coming weeks according to the GCC deal and its scheduled implementation plan and the UN resolution 2014 on the solution of the Yemeni crisis.

The outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who will remain as an honorary president until a new president is elected on February 21st, 2012, will likely go for more medical treatments in United States according to Western diplomatic sources.

After treatment, Saleh will return to Yemen to act as a normal politician in his party.

Although the general political and security situation is getting better and better day by day since the internationally-supported deal of power transfer was signed in November23rd, 2011, a lot of protesters remain in the streets demanding the trial of those who were behind killing hundreds of Yemenis during the one-year political crisis.

The young protesters are still skeptical that the opposition-chaired government would be able to achieve their demands to have democratic and civil State, despite the fact that the majority of them belong to the opposition parties that agreed on the solution.

The young protesters are not represented in the new opposition-chaired government which was evenly divided between the ruling party and the main six opposition parties, locally known as the Joint Meeting Parties.

Some politicians now want the protesters to go home to help the government build the economy and provide the basic services for the people who suffered for almost one year.

And some other politicians want the young protesters to stay in their tents in the streets as a guarantee that all their demands will be met.

"The young protester should now form committees to monitor the performance of the unity government for establishing the democratic and modern state," said Dr.Adel Al Sharjabi, political analyst and university professor.

"The young people should not now care for themselves being represented in the government but they should care very much for the representation of their ideas and visions," said Al Sharjabi.

Implementation of the scheduled step-by-step plan for the power transfer has been continuing without stop or delay since the conflicting parties agreed to end the crisis last November 23 despite the difficulties.

In the Yemeni capital for instance, troops and armed tribesmen from both sides were withdrawn from many streets.
Sand bags and soil barriers were removed from these streets and relatively normal life is back now.

The sand bags and soil barriers in some of the most dangerous touching points like Aser traffic circle in the 60 ring road were removed. And the process is continuing to clean the capital from all military and weapons manifestations.

About 50 schools in Sanaa are still occupied by troops and armed tribesmen from both sides. The committee started to evacuate them on Tuesday December 20th , 2011.

However, the military committee in charge for restoring stability faced more difficulties in removing the huge pile of sand bags and barriers in the area of Al Hasaba, where the most influential opposition tribal leader Hamid Al Ahmar and his ten brothers have been in armed conflict with the government troops since last May.

But 10 international and Arab ambassadors seem to be determined to work day and night for helping the vice president, who is authorized from Saleh to act as president, and the new government to implement the step by step plan until a new president is elected on February 21st, 2011.

These 10 ambassadors are the five ambassadors of the permanent countries in UN Security Council, 4 ambassadors of the six gulf nations and the ambassador of the European Union.

The four gulf ambassadors are the Saudi, Emirates, Oman, and Kuwait.

Qatar withdrew after the parties failed to sign last May. Bahrain Ambassodor is not attending the meetings.

"We follow up hour by hour what's happening in the ground in terms of implementation what Yemenis agreed to do for ending their crisis," said one of the 10 ambassadors.

"If any failure happens, we will know easily who is responsible for that failure and we will say to the world this is the responsible," the ambassador added.

Earlier last week, the Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi put a one week long road map to withdraw all government forces and opposition armed militants from the streets of the capital Sanaa and the other cities starting at 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday December 17th, 2011.

In a meeting with the military committee for achieving security and stability, which was formed from opposition and government, Mr. Hadi who is authorized by President Saleh to act as president till elections are held next February, said :
The government forces must return to their permanent camps and opposition armed people must return to their villages and houses.

The military and security situation in Sanaa and other cities witnessing tensions, must be as normal as it was before January 2011.

The meeting was attended by the UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar who urged all parties to stop violating human rights and stop violence.

On December 21, 2011, Bin Omar is scheduled to brief the UN Security Council on the progress in solving the Yemeni crisis and implementation of its resolution 2014.

Intelligence officer assassinated, Al Qaeda has hallmarks

2011-12-20T13:08:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee/21/12/2011

The colonel Mahmoud Saleh Al Tawus was assassinated nearby his house in Al Hawta, the capital of the southern province of Lahj, said local source early Wednesday.

Al Tawus was driving black Vitara car when a gunman believed to Al Qaeda member motorcycle shot him dead and escaped away, said the sources who know the family of the assassinated officer.

There is increasing concern with the people that Lahj may become like Abyan which witnessed many assassinations by motorcycles before it fell under the control of Al Qaeda last May.

Earlier on Tuesday, the government arrested 7 Al Qaeda operatives in the southern province of Shabwah before they implemented their plan to assassinate officials and attack installations in the capital of Shabwah, Atak.

Yemen defected general supports unity government

2011-12-19T00:55:00.000-08:00

Source:Xinhua,19/12:2011

SANAA-Yemeni defected General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar said on Sunday that he backs the country's new coalition government formed in line with a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal after months of anti-government protests.

"We completely support the new opposition-led coalition government and the process of the joint military committee, both of which are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative, " Mohsen told reporters at a news conference in Sanaa.

Mohsen's announcement came one day after the military committee began to withdraw forces and troops loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh from the capital Sanaa.

Meanwhile, the general met on Sunday with representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the European Union and the GCC countries as part of his efforts to help restore normalcy in the unrest-ridden country.

The initiative was signed by Saleh and opposition leaders in Saudi Arabia on Nov. 23 to end the 11-month-long turmoil that left thousands of people dead and brought the impoverished Arab state on the verge of civil war and economic collapse.

Under the deal, early presidential elections in Yemen are set to be held on Feb. 21, 2012, while Saleh retains the title of honorary president for 90 days before his resignation and enjoys immunity from prosecution afterwards.

Process of withdrawing troops and armed tribesmen started for enhancing peace and normalizing life in Yemen

2011-12-17T02:57:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee, 18//12/2011

Sand bags and soil barriers were removed and armed tribesmen and troops and armored vehicles were withdrawn from some of the streets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in an implementation of a plan to enhance on going peace process and the political solution of the one-year long political crisis.

The sand bags and soil barriers in Aser traffic circle in the 60 ring road were removed before noon Saturday and the process is continuing to clean the capital from all military and weapons manifestations.

Earlier, the Yemeni Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi put a one week long road map to withdraw all government forces and opposition armed militants from the streets of the capital Sanaa and the other cities starting at 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday December 17th, 2011.

In a meeting with the military committee for achieving security and stability, which was formed from opposition and government, Mr. Hadi who is authorized by President Saleh to act as president till elections are held next February, said :
The government forces must return to their permanent camps and opposition armed people must return to their villages and houses.

The military and security situation in Sanaa and other cities witnessing tensions, must be as normal as it was before January 2011.

The meeting was attended by the UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar who urged all parties to stop violating human rights and stop violence.

Big support for Yemen's political and peace process

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia promised to offer all urgent needs to the recently established government of Yemen under the leadership of the opposition.

The Saudi foreign minister called earlier this week the vice president,Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, and the prime minister Mohammed Basundwa and told them that the Saudi king had ordered the assistance to Yemen.

The international community appears to be very determined to help the 35-member government which is evenly divided between the opposition and the ruling party.

The most urgent needs for the Yemeni people now are the fuels and electricity.
The prime minster, Mohammed Salem Basundwa,who is also the chairman of the "National Council of Revolution" told the ministers to be one team and quickly stop the sufferings of the people.

The worsening economic situation is the biggest challenge facing the new interim government.

The security situation has become relatively better especially after the new ministers started to operate their ministries.

The opposition runs 17 ministries including, the interior ministry, the information ministry, and the finance ministry.

The UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar is also doing his best by directly supervising the implementation plan of the GCC deal and UN resolution 2014.

This week, Bin Omar, visited the three most troubled provinces, Taiz,( south of the north), Aden, capital of the south, and Saada (north of the north). He met all different parties in the three cities.

The ambassadors of the five permanent countries in the UN Council, as well as the ambassadors of the six gulf countries and EU ambassador, are also visiting these cities where tension is higher than other places in the whole country.
In Taiz,troops and armed opposition fighters started to withdraw from the streets earlier this weeks after months of fighting.

In Aden, the separatists still demand the separation of the south and ignore the internationally supported current solution for the crisis. In Saada, Al Houthi Shiite rebels still want to have their own government and refuse the solution. The UN envoy repeatedly said that the separatist movement, locally known as Hirak, and Al Houthi and the independent youth should be represented in the new government, but the three groups are not yet represented.

Observers say if the government would be helped to fix the economic problems then it will be successful in the other areas.

"the essential problem is economic more than political, so the new government should not be confused by what is being said that Yemeni economy is collapsed, it is not collapsed but it had only some stagnancy," said Dr, Mohammed Al Sabri, an expert in Yemeni economy.

"the Yemeni economy can rise again with the minimum cost," said Dr Al Sabri who was involved in the economic reforms before the political crisis erupted in Yemen earlier this year.

According to the implementation plan of the GCC deal, on February 21, 2012, early elections will be held and new president will be elected instead of president Saleh who signed the GCC on November 23 in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

After leaving the power, Ali Abdullah Saleh will continue his political activities through his party as he repeatedly said.

To appease the protesters who still in the streets, the new minister of interior, Abdul Qader Qahtan, ordered the release of detainees on political background especially those detained during the crisis.

The opposition-chaired government is thinking of a way to convince the protesters to go home as a step of removing the factors of tension in the streets.

The armed opposition tribesmen claim they defend the peaceful protesters and the government security will not withdraw without withdrawal of the opposition fighters from the streets.

Al Qaeda top leaders move to new hideouts and 6 operatives arrested

The Yemen two top leaders of Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) left their hideouts in the southern province of Shabwah to new hideouts in the north-east province Al Jawf, said local sources on Tuesday.

The sources said that the Yemeni Nasser Al Wahayshi (top leader of AQAP) and Saudi Saeed Al Shehri (deputy) left Shabwah early this month to unknown new hideouts in Al Jawaf and Mareb where recruiting and training young people has become easier than any other places.

The sources added that hundreds of young people were sent from Al Jawf and Mareb to Al Qaeda-held towns in the south like Jaar, Zinjubar, in Abyan and Al Huta in Shabwah over the last six months.

"We believe there is some kind of training now in the two desert provinces of Al Jawaf and Mareb , maybe this is why the leaders moved there," said the sources.

On September 30th, 2011, the Yemeni American cleric, Anwar Al Awlaki, who was the most wanted terrorist for the US, was killed with three other operatives by a US drone in Al Jawf where important meetings were held.

Earlier Tuesday, a total of six Al Qaeda operatives including the Al Qaeda leader in Al Jawf province, were arrested according to an official statement by the ministry of interior.

The terrorist group were planning to assassinate senior officials and attack government installations and western embassies and interests.

Musaad Mohammed Ahmed Naji Al Barbari, the leader of Al Qaeda in Al Jawf province, 200km north-east of the capital Sanaa, was one of the six terrorists.

Al Barbari led an operation to attack the Sanaa international airport in January,19th, 2009.

The arrest was the first operation implemented against Al Qaeda by the ministry of interior under the leadership of the new minister, Abdul Qader Qahtan who is from the opposition side in the opposition-chaired new government.

The ministry of interior published their full names and photos. The group was also recruiting young people and sending them to fight with Al Qaeda against the government troops in the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwah.
The other five were identified as Mohammed Hussein Mohammed Musyab, Mohammed Abdul Qader Ahmed Al Shehri, Nader Ahmed Mohammed Al Qubati, Mohammed Muthana Ali Mohammed Al Ammari, and Abdul Munem Hamid Ali Abu Ghanim.

Al Qaeda Rebranding Itself to Improve Image, and Recruit More Westerners

2011-12-15T01:56:00.000-08:00

Source: Fox News,15/12/2011

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is rebranding itself to try to lose the negative "baggage" associated with the larger terror organization's identity, according to a senior Arab diplomat who says the Yemeni-based group is trying to attract more foreign fighters to its cause.

AQAP is increasingly going by the name "Ansar al Sharia," which means Army of Islamic Law, the diplomat told Fox News.

"After (Usama) bin Laden's death and the Arab Spring, the name (al Qaeda) seems to have negative connotations and baggage," said the diplomat, who would discuss the changes only on condition of anonymity.

The name swap was likened to a similar evolution experienced by al Qaeda in Iraq's military and political wings. The rebranding of AQAP is seen as an effort to create "a big tent" to attract foreign jihadists and give it a greater air of legitimacy as a political movement.

Since al Qaeda leader bin Laden's death in May at the hand of U.S. Navy SEALs, the number of foreign fighters traveling to Pakistan has dropped, but the number heading to Yemen is on an upswing.

A senior Yemeni official with access to the intelligence said the number of foreign fighters in Yemen now exceeds 1,000. If accurate, that is more than four times the number of al Qaeda members believed to be in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Combined with the al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, which Kenyan officials is now the base for upwards of 750 foreign fighters now in training, the horn of Africa -- and by extension Yemen -- are now the central threat hubs.

Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, director of homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News that "moving away from the larger al Qaeda brand is something I think we're starting to see more of."

With the death of bin Laden, it makes sense for groups to become more diffused from centralized leadership so they can focus on regional issues rather than brand-building, he said.

Would-be recruits are "finding that the al Qaeda core is no longer beneficial to be associated with ... because their main leader is gone," Nelson said, noting that Usama bin Laden was a charismatic leader who offered a lot of financial backing and Ayman al-Zawahiri "is not an effective replacement."

Nelson added that there are pros and cons for al Qaeda's tentacles to switch to new names.

"One thing about AQAP is it's got remarkable name recognition, which can serve to help recruiting" and financial development. On the other hand, "it also helps to attract a lot of global counterterror initiatives."

U.S. officials acknowledge that al Qaeda in Yemen, which was behind the last two major plots targeting the U.S. airline industry, including Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber in 2009, is "digging in and internally focused" as it tries to establish a safe haven in the Abyan and Shabwa provinces.

"It is like shooting fish in a barrel," the Arab diplomat said without elaborating.

Much of southern Yemen is under control of AQAP, whose leader, Nasir al Wuhayshi, served as bin Laden's personal secretary. Wuhayshi, who reportedly survived an August 2011 counterterror attack, is believed to be the creator of Ansar al Sharia and a top voice contending to lead the global network.

On Tuesday, the Yemeni Embassy in Washington D.C. confirmed the capture of six senior members of al Qaeda in Yemen, including "Musaed Al-Barbari, Emir of AQAP, who allegedly planned and executed the an attack on Sana'a International Airport in 2009."

The Yemeni statement, obtained by Fox News, claimed the group was an active terror cell.

"The terrorism suspects have been carrying out surveillance, and planning missions aimed at targeting government and high ranking security officials. Furthermore, the cell was planning on orchestrating attacks on foreign missions and critical state installations."

In addition, the statement said the 15 prisoners who recently escaped a Yemeni prison in Al-Mansoura district in the southern port city of Aden were not members of al Qaeda as originally reported.

"Ministry of Interior has officially confirmed that the fleeing fugitives are not members of AQAP but were (imprisoned) and convicted for criminal charges. A joint security team is currently interviewing prison officials and staff on the incident. Law enforcement and military units have managed to recapture three of the fleeing fugitives," the statement added.

Road map for removing troops and gunmen from streets to normalize life in Yemen

2011-12-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,14/12/2011

The Yemeni Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi put a one week long road map to withdraw all government forces and opposition armed militants from the streets of the capital Sanaa and the other cities starting at 8 o'clock in the morning on Saturday December 17th, 2011.

In a meeting with the military committee for achieving security and stability, which was formed from opposition and government, Mr. Hadi who is authorized by President Saleh to act as president till elections are held next February, said :
The government forces must return to their permanent camps and opposition armed people must return to their villages and houses.

The military and security situation in Sanaa and other cities witnessing tensions, must be as normal as it was before January 2011.

The meeting was attended by the UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar who urged all parties to stop violating human rights and stop violence.

Big support for Yemen's political and peace process

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia promised to offer all urgent needs to the recently established government of Yemen under the leadership of the opposition.

The Saudi foreign minister called earlier this week the vice president,Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, and the prime minister Mohammed Basundwa and told them that the Saudi king had ordered the assistance to Yemen.

The international community appears to be very determined to help the 35-member government which is evenly divided between the opposition and the ruling party.

The most urgent needs for the Yemeni people now are the fuels and electricity.
The prime minster, Mohammed Salem Basundwa,who is also the chairman of the "National Council of Revolution" told the ministers to be one team and quickly stop the sufferings of the people.

The worsening economic situation is the biggest challenge facing the new interim government.

The security situation has become relatively better especially after the new ministers started to operate their ministries.

The opposition runs 17 ministries including, the interior ministry, the information ministry, and the finance ministry.

The UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar is also doing his best by directly supervising the implementation plan of the GCC deal and UN resolution 2014.

This week, Bin Omar, visited the three most troubled provinces, Taiz,( south of the north), Aden, capital of the south, and Saada (north of the north). He met all different parties in the three cities.

The ambassadors of the five permanent countries in the UN Council, as well as the ambassadors of the six gulf countries and EU ambassador, are also visiting these cities where tension is higher than other places in the whole country.
In Taiz,troops and armed opposition fighters started to withdraw from the streets earlier this weeks after months of fighting.

In Aden, the separatists still demand the separation of the south and ignore the internationally supported current solution for the crisis. In Saada, Al Houthi Shiite rebels still want to have their own government and refuse the solution. The UN envoy repeatedly said that the separatist movement, locally known as Hirak, and Al Houthi and the independent youth should be represented in the new government, but the three groups are not yet represented.

Observers say if the government would be helped to fix the economic problems then it will be successful in the other areas.

"the essential problem is economic more than political, so the new government should not be confused by what is being said that Yemeni economy is collapsed, it is not collapsed but it had only some stagnancy," said Dr, Mohammed Al Sabri, an expert in Yemeni economy.

"the Yemeni economy can rise again with the minimum cost," said Dr Al Sabri who was involved in the economic reforms before the political crisis erupted in Yemen earlier this year.

According to the implementation plan of the GCC deal, on February 21, 2012, early elections will be held and new president will be elected instead of president Saleh who signed the GCC on November 23 in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

After leaving the power, Ali Abdullah Saleh will continue his political activities through his party as he repeatedly said.

To appease the protesters who still in the streets, the new minister of interior, Abdul Qader Qahtan, ordered the release of detainees on political background especially those detained during the crisis.

The opposition-chaired government is thinking of a way to convince the protesters to go home as a step of removing the factors of tension in the streets.

The armed opposition tribesmen claim they defend the peaceful protesters and the government security will not withdraw without withdrawal of the opposition fighters from the streets.

Al Qaeda top leaders move to new hideouts and 6 operatives arrested

The Yemen two top leaders of Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) left their hideouts in the southern province of Shabwah to new hideouts in the north-east province Al Jawf, said local sources on Tuesday.

The sources said that the Yemeni Nasser Al Wahayshi (top leader of AQAP) and Saudi Saeed Al Shehri (deputy) left Shabwah early this month to unknown new hideouts in Al Jawaf and Mareb where recruiting and training young people has become easier than any other places.

The sources added that hundreds of young people were sent from Al Jawf and Mareb to Al Qaeda-held towns in the south like Jaar, Zinjubar, in Abyan and Al Huta in Shabwah over the last six months.

"We believe there is some kind of training now in the two desert provinces of Al Jawaf and Mareb , maybe this is why the leaders moved there," said the sources.

On September 30th, 2011, the Yemeni American cleric, Anwar Al Awlaki, who was the most wanted terrorist for the US, was killed with three other operatives by a US drone in Al Jawf where important meetings were held.

Earlier Tuesday, a total of six Al Qaeda operatives including the Al Qaeda leader in Al Jawf province, were arrested according to an official statement by the ministry of interior.

The terrorist group were planning to assassinate senior officials and attack government installations and western embassies and interests.

Musaad Mohammed Ahmed Naji Al Barbari, the leader of Al Qaeda in Al Jawf province, 200km north-east of the capital Sanaa, was one of the six terrorists.

Al Barbari led an operation to attack the Sanaa international airport in January,19th, 2009.

The arrest was the first operation implemented against Al Qaeda by the ministry of interior under the leadership of the new minister, Abdul Qader Qahtan who is from the opposition side in the opposition-chaired new government.

The ministry of interior published their full names and photos. The group was also recruiting young people and sending them to fight with Al Qaeda against the government troops in the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwah.
The other five were identified as Mohammed Hussein Mohammed Musyab, Mohammed Abdul Qader Ahmed Al Shehri, Nader Ahmed Mohammed Al Qubati, Mohammed Muthana Ali Mohammed Al Ammari, and Abdul Munem Hamid Ali Abu Ghanim.

Al Qaeda top leaders move to new hideouts and 6 operatives arrested

2011-12-13T07:20:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,13/12/2011

The Yemen two top leaders of Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) left their hideouts in the southern province of Shabwah to new hideouts in the north-east province Al Jawf, said local sources on Tuesday.

The sources said that the Yemeni Nasser Al Wahayshi (top leader of AQAP) and Saudi Saeed Al Shehri (deputy) left Shabwah early this month to unknown new hideouts in Al Jawaf and Mareb where recruiting and training young people has become easier than any other places.

The sources added that hundreds of young people were sent from Al Jawf and Mareb to Al Qaeda-held towns in the south like Jaar, Zinjubar, in Abyan and Al Huta in Shabwah over the last six months.

"We believe there is some kind of training now in the two desert provinces of Al Jawaf and Mareb , maybe this is why the leaders moved there," said the sources.

On September 30th, 2011, the Yemeni American cleric, Anwar Al Awlaki, who was the most wanted terrorist for the US, was killed with three other operatives by a US drone in Al Jawf where important meetings were held.

Earlier Tuesday, a total of six Al Qaeda operatives including the Al Qaeda leader in Al Jawf province, were arrested according to an official statement by the ministry of interior.

The terrorist group were planning to assassinate senior officials and attack government installations and western embassies and interests.

Musaad Mohammed Ahmed Naji Al Barbari, the leader of Al Qaeda in Al Jawf province, 200km north-east of the capital Sanaa, was one of the six terrorists.

Al Barbari led an operation to attack the Sanaa international airport in January,19th, 2009.

The arrest was the first operation implemented against Al Qaeda by the ministry of interior under the leadership of the new minister, Abdul Qader Qahtan who is from the opposition side in the opposition-chaired new government.

The ministry of interior published their full names and photos. The group was also recruiting young people and sending them to fight with Al Qaeda against the government troops in the southern provinces of Abyan and Shabwah.
The other five were identified as Mohammed Hussein Mohammed Musyab, Mohammed Abdul Qader Ahmed Al Shehri, Nader Ahmed Mohammed Al Qubati, Mohammed Muthana Ali Mohammed Al Ammari, and Abdul Munem Hamid Ali Abu Ghanim.

Grasping at Peace, War Zone of a City Tests Yemen

2011-12-12T07:39:00.000-08:00

Source: The New York Times,12/12/2011
By KAREEM FAHIM

TAIZ, Yemen — Armed tribesmen had finally retreated from a pocket of this city, handing back to the state an education building they had occupied in recent weeks. The governor, elated, called it a breakthrough.

Dozens of people had been killed during weeks of violence. Cease-fires had come and gone. Now, the building handover again raised the possibility of a truce. For eight hours, the streets were quiet.

Then the tribesmen retook the building.

“I think we will succeed. Or not,” the governor, Hamoud al-Sofi, said Thursday, sounding exasperated. “We will see.”

Yemen has been caught in a cycle of protest, repression and factional fighting that simply will not let go, even though, as in Taiz, there are many moments that appear to signal a breakthrough, as when the president agreed to step down. The interim government that took power in Yemen last week amid guarded optimism faces an array of daunting challenges.

The economy is near collapse; an insurgency is raging in the country’s north; southern groups are pressing demands for their own state; and militants linked to Al Qaeda, capitalizing on the chaos, have seized some territory.

And the government will somehow have to put Taiz — a city now suffused with sharp divisions and deep resentments — back together. The task, complicated and pressing, will test the agreement that removed President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power, hailed by the opposition figures who signed it as a way out of a political crisis and dismissed by many protesters as a deal that changed little.

The agreement called for Mr. Saleh to hand over some of his powers to his deputy and for elections for a new president in February. It called for creating a military committee that is supposed to tackle Yemen’s thorniest problems, including removing militias from the streets and eventually restructuring the armed forces, where key units are still led by members of Mr. Saleh’s family.

Taiz will be a critical test of the committee’s effectiveness, analysts say, because the architecture of the city’s conflict — mirroring the nation’s at large — remains largely intact.

A proxy war has sprung up here around the protesters, pitting the government against its rivals in a contest of weapons and territory that has left parts of the city badly damaged.

The security forces are still led by the men whom the protesters blame for the deadly government response to the uprising. And the armed tribesmen who entered the fray on the side of the demonstrators say they are willing to withdraw but not to leave the city unprotected.

Since the agreement was signed Nov. 23, the list of victims has only grown longer.

They include Ruwaya al-Shaybani, a 20-year-old protester who studied Koranic recitation and was killed Dec. 4. Though the government denied its soldiers were responsible, protesters said Ms. Shaybani was shot in the chest by a pro-government sniper after soldiers opened fire on a demonstration in the middle of one of the failed cease-fires.

“There has been a breach of every agreement,” said Boshra al-Maqtari, one of Taiz’s most prominent protest leaders, who stood near Ms. Shaybani’s body in the Al-Rawdah hospital as her mother wept over the student.

The hospital’s upper floors were badly damaged during days of fierce shelling by the military, doctors said. “The youth are angry,” Ms. Maqtari said. “Violence brings violence.”

Abdulwahab Dhaifallah, a 31-year-old grocer who lived in Oakland, Calif., was killed on a visit here last month when tribesmen allied with the protesters fired on his car, for no reason, according to his brother, Hatem Mohammed. “We’re not with the government,” his brother said. “We’re not with these guys,” he said, referring to the tribesmen. “This is not a revolution like Egypt.”

Taiz, a city in southwestern Yemen known for its streak of resistance, helped drive the revolt against Mr. Saleh with highly organized protests that unnerved the government and drew a furious response. As protesters were killed, armed tribesmen joined the fight, bringing clashes that transformed the uprising and overshadowed the peaceful protests. The antigovernment activists continue to defend the intervention of the tribesmen, calling them “people protectors.”

Many bristled at the notion that the only legitimate resistance in the face of the government’s repression was peaceful marches, though in recent days, some activists have asked the tribesmen to stay away from the protesters’ encampment in Freedom Square.

“The square acted as a magnet that attracted all sorts of things,” said Abdulkader al-Guneid, a physician and pro-democracy activist. “Things we are proud of and things we are not.”

The agreement to remove Mr. Saleh calls for the military committee to ensure that the government’s armed units return to their camps and militias leave the streets of Yemen’s cities. The committee’s unenviable task, as the agreement puts it, is to “end all of the armed conflicts.” In Taiz, the committee members will work in a city stripped of trust. Security officials in Taiz forcefully blame Yemen’s Islamists for the violence and say that the demonstrations are being manipulated by opposition parties, a claim protest leaders deny.

Abdullah Qayran, the chief of security in Taiz, admitted that government troops had “made mistakes” and killed civilians and protesters, but he said the soldiers had acted to defend themselves and had not received orders to kill. He accused the tribesmen of using heavy weapons and read the names of the soldiers who had been killed during months of unrest.

The continued fighting in Taiz has led to charges by protesters that Mr. Saleh, hoping to punish the city for its resistance and thwart the agreement that removed him from power, is still directing the government’s response.

Mr. Qayran played down the role of the president, saying he took orders from the interior minister and Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi, the vice president tapped as Mr. Saleh’s successor.

“We have institutions in this country,” Mr. Qayran said. “Some people understand that things are being led by personalities,” he said, explaining that the media and the opposition foster that perception.

Stepping back from the city’s troubles, the security chief tried to strike a conciliatory note. He is loathed by many of the protesters, who say the government response to the demonstrations became more deadly after he was transferred to the city in March.

“If the peaceful protests continued as it was in the first days, I would have thought of becoming one of the supporters,” he said. “Why not? We believe in change.”

Many residents, though, were skeptical that a solution would be possible without more radical change, including the removal of Mr. Qayran and other top security officials.

Haroun al-Nasher, the owner of a stationery store across the street from the contested education building, said the presence of the tribesmen had made him feel safe.

“If they feel the regime is honest, they’ll go back to their villages,” he said Wednesday. The chances of that happening were about “2 percent,” he said.

Four days later, the governor, full of optimism, announced a new truce.

Yemeni rival forces quit streets and ruling party stops demonstrations and calls opposition to do the same

2011-12-09T06:47:00.001-08:00

Source: Reuters, 09/12/201

SANAA- Yemeni forces loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposition gunmen are withdrawing from the streets of Taiz city, an official said on Friday.

Dozens have been killed in Taiz, Yemen's commercial capital, since Saleh signed a deal last month to give up power. Months of anti-government protests have pushed the impoverished country to the brink of civil war.

The official said a committee set up to restore normality to Taiz was clearing away road blocks set up by Saleh opponents and loyalists during street battles, and overseeing their withdrawal from occupied buildings.

Protesters continue to take to the streets in anger at the opposition parties' endorsement of the power transfer deal, which grants immunity from prosecution to Saleh over the killing of demonstrators by security forces.

Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said it would stop holding pro-government rallies after Friday prayers to show its commitment to a political solution.

"The decision by the party's leadership is a new sign of the GPC's eager desire to act in the higher interest of the nation and to begin ending the political crisis," said a statement from the party that urged opposition parties to do the same.

A member of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) said it was not for them to call off street protests.

"We in the JMP do not have the authority to cancel protests and sit-ins. It's the youth movement that controls the protesters," the assistant secretary-general of the socialist party told Reuters.

Under the transfer plan negotiated by Yemen's wealthy Gulf neighbours, the GPC and opposition parties divide up cabinet posts between them and form a national unity government to steer the country ahead of a presidential election in February.

The cabinet, which is due to be sworn in on Saturday, faces a host of challenges including a southern separatist movement, a rebellion in the north and a regional wing of al Qaeda that has exploited the upheaval to strengthen its foothold in Yemen.

Neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the United States, both targets of foiled attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, fear the global militant network could use a security vacuum to plot and perhaps carry out attacks on the region and beyond.

The interior ministry said it was making arrangements for the United Nations envoy who helped broker the power transfer deal to visit the north and south of the country, where central government control has been severely weakened.

Opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa, who is now prime minister, said his first foreign visit would be to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ask for urgent support for Yemen's fuel and electricity needs.

Yemen's new government should stop child marriage,HRW says

2011-12-08T00:48:00.001-08:00

Child Marriage in Yemen Spurs Abuse of Girls and Women

Yemen’s Next Government Should Set Minimum Age at 18

Source: Human Rights Watch, 08/12/2011

Beirut- Widespread child marriage jeopardizes Yemeni girls’ access to education, harms their health, and keeps them second-class citizens, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The government of Yemen should set 18 as the minimum age for marriage to improve girls’ opportunities and protect their human rights.

The 54-page report, “‘How Come You Allow Little Girls to Get Married?’: Child Marriage in Yemen,” documents the lifelong damage to girls who are forced to marry young. Yemeni girls and women told Human Rights Watch about being forced into child marriages by their families, and then having no control over whether and when to bear children and other important aspects of their lives.

They said that marrying early had cut short their education, and some said they had been subjected to marital rape and domestic abuse. There is no legal minimum age for girls to marry in Yemen. Many girls are forced into marriage, and some are as young as 8.

“Yemen’s political crisis has left issues such as child marriage at the bottom of the political priority list,” said Nadya Khalife, women’s rights researcher for the Middle East and North Africa at Human Rights Watch.

“But now is the time to move on this issue, setting the minimum age for marriage at 18, to ensure that girls and women who played a major role in Yemen’s protest movement will also contribute to shaping Yemen’s future.”

Over the past months, demonstrators called for a range of reforms, including measures to guarantee equality between women and men. Banning child marriage – a major cause of discrimination and abuse against girls and women – should be a priority for reform, Human Rights Watch said.

Yemeni government and United Nations data show that approximately 14 percent of girls in Yemen are married before age 15, and 52 percent are married before age 18. In some rural areas, girls as young as 8 are married. Girls are sometimes forced to marry much older men. Boys are seldom forced into child marriages.

The report is based on field research in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, between August and September 2010, including interviews with more than 30 girls and women who were married as children, members of nongovernmental organizations, and staff members at the Health and Education Ministries.

Magda T., whose name has been changed for her protection, told Human Rights Watch: “I reached sixth grade, and left school to get married. Now, when I see my daughter, I say to myself, ‘Who’s going to teach her?’ Because I can’t. I understood [the value of education] when I got older.”

A 16-year-old girl told Human Rights Watch: “My father insisted that I get married. I wanted to go to college, to become a lawyer, but there’s no chance now because I’m going to have a baby.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed girls who said they were forced to marry young and several who had been removed from school as soon as they reached puberty.

A Yemeni study found that many parents remove girls in rural areas from school at age 9 to help in the house, raise their younger siblings, and sometimes to get married. Almost all of the girls and women interviewed said that once they were married, they were unable to continue or complete their education, and many had children soon after marriage.

Research conducted by children’s rights organizations and others such as Save the Children has found that girls with limited education and power in their marriages have little chance of controlling the number and spacing of their children. This increases their risk of reproductive health problems.

Girls and women interviewed also said that they were often exposed to gender-based violence, including domestic abuse and sexual violence. Some girls and women told Human Rights Watch that their husbands, in-laws, and other members of the husband’s household verbally or physically assaulted them. Married girls and women in Yemen often live with their husband’s extended family.

Tawakkol Karman, the Yemeni activist who will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on December 10, 2011, along with two Liberian women leaders for their work to advance women’s rights, has criticized the Yemeni government’s failure to ban child marriage. In an opinion piece published in 2010, Karman wrote, “There is a vast space in our Islamic Law heritage for reaching consensus on adopting the age of 18 as a minimum age for marriage.”

Yemen’s future government has a genuine opportunity to show its commitment to gender equality and to protecting the rights of all its citizens by addressing the issue, Human Rights Watch said.

The government should take steps legislatively to set the minimum age for marriage at 18 and promote public awareness of the harm child marriage causes. The Yemeni government and its international donors should also boost girls’ and women’s access to education, reproductive health information and services, and protection from domestic violence.

“International donors invest millions of dollars on education and health reform in Yemen,” Khalife said. “Without a ban on child marriage, none of the international aid will prevent girls from being forced to leave school and from the health risks of child marriage.”

The Yemeni government actually has regressed in addressing the issue, Human Rights Watch said. In 1999 Yemen’s parliament, citing religious grounds, abolished the legal minimum age for marriage for girls and boys, which was then 15. In 2009, a majority in parliament voted to set 17 as the minimum age.

However, a group of lawmakers, contending that reinstating a minimum age would be contrary to Sharia (Islamic law), used a parliamentary procedure to stall the draft law indefinitely.

Many other countries in the Middle East and North Africa recognize Sharia as a source of law, but nearly all have set a minimum age for marriage for both boys and girls; many setting the marriage age at 18 or higher, conforming to international standards and treaties that define a child as anyone under 18.

United Nations treaty monitoring bodies that oversee implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) have recommended a minimum age of 18 for marriage.

Yemen is party to a number of international treaties and conventions that explicitly prohibit child marriage and commit states parties to take measures to eliminate the practice. These include the CRC, CEDAW, the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriage, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

“Girls should not be forced to be wives and mothers,” Khalife said. “As Yemen undergoes political change, leaders should seize the opportunity to correct an injustice that does enormous harm and set the country on a new course of social justice, including equality for women and girls.”

Yemeni Journalist receives two death threats from Al Qaeda in one day

2011-12-07T21:38:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,08/12/2011

The Yemeni journalist Anis Mansour said that he received two death threats from Al Qaeda on Thursday December 8th, 2011.

Mansour, who reports about Al Qaeda activities from the southern city of Aden, said the first death threat came to him over phone when a woman named Huda Al Abeidi called him early morning Thursday saying " You will be killed if you do not stop helping and facilitating the operations against Al Mujahedeen."

And the second death threat came to him in a written letter handed personally to him by a masked man in the area of Khur Maksar in Aden city early morning on Thursday, December 8th, 2011.

The journalist Anis Mansour who is a freelancer with many internal and external media outlets, called on the Yemeni authorities to protect him and he called the human rights group to support his right to writing and speaking about any activity without fear.

Solution for Yemeni crisis goes on despite difficulties

2011-12-06T23:17:00.002-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee/07/12/2011

Yemenis are continuing the implementation of an agreed solution to end their one-year long political crisis, despite big obstacles.

One of the most important step taken this week was formation a military and security committee that will restore the stability of the country.

Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi is the chairman of this committee which is made of 14 military and security commanders, 7 from opposition and 7 from the ruling party.

The regional and international support for solution was obviously behind the continuation of achieving progress despite the tremendous difficulties.

The 34-member opposition-chaired government of national consensus is supposed to start working from the beginning of next week.

The opposition, which includes the six main opposition parties, have agreed to take 17 portfolios including the ministry of interior, ministry finance,and ministry of information, which means also half of the most important six ministries.

The ruling party, still chaired by the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh, took the other 17 portfolios including the ministry of defense, the ministry of oil, and the ministry of foreign affairs.

According to the GCC and its implementation plan signed by all parties on November 23, 2011 in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the opposition divided the 34 cabinet portfolios into two lists and the ruling party chose one of them, that's the one which included the ministries of defense, foreign affairs,and oil.

Vice President Hadi must be the candidate of both the opposition and the ruling party in early presidential elections to be held on February 21, 2012.

Independent candidates will be allowed to compete Mr Hadi.

After this election, president Saleh will leave power, but would remain as chairman of his party.

On Wednesday, December 7, 2011, the ruling party would announce Mr Hadi , who is now the secretary general of the party, as its candidate for the February presidential elections, according to the mechanism plan of the Saudi-led Gulf initiative for power transfer.

In the same meeting of the ruling party on Wednesday,the outgoing prime minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, will be elected as a secretary general of the ruling party instead of the current one, Mr Hadi, according to senior officials who are participate in the meeting.

THE SITUATION ON THE GROUND

The opposition armed tribesmen and government troops started Tuesday December 6 to withdraw from the city of Taiz after four days of fierce fighting in which dozens were killed and injured from both sides.

The ministry of interior said Tuesday in an official statement that 110 defected soldiers and officers were arrested in the city of Taiz including their commander Sadek Sarhan.

Earlier this year, the defected general Ali Mohsen, sent the military commander Sarhan to fight against government troops in the city of Taiz.

The arrest of Sarhan and his soldiers came after attempts from western diplomats in Sanaa to convince general Muhsen to bring Sarhan back to Sanaa.

Yemenis and western monitors are now in the central southern city of Taiz to see who violate the agreements and kill civilians.

In Saada, the north of the north, more than 30 people were killed and dozens others injured in fierce fighting between Al Houthi Shiite followers and the Sunni Salafi group based in the same province of Saada over the last two weeks.

The top leader of Shiite,Abdul Malik Al Houthi,vowed in a speech delivered on Tuesday December 6, 2011, on the annual Shiite occasion of Ashura, he vowed to continue fighting against what he called the "American and Israeli conspiracy".

Al Hourhi refused the GCC initiative to solve the Yemeni political crisis saying it was made by the American Ambassodor in Sanaa.

In a phone interview with the spokesman of the Salafi group in Saada, Abu Ismail, who said Al Houthi is exploiting the absence of the government in Saada and launch sectarian war against the Sunnis.

Abu Ismail told the Weekly that two American, one French, one Russian, one Malaysian and two Indonesian Salafi students in Dammaj Salafi school in Saada were killed in the ongoing battles between the Al Houthi Shiite fighters and Sunni Salafi fighters.

Al Hourhi fighters imposed a siege on about 15,000 people including about 6,000 students of the Salafi school in Dammag area about 50 days ago.

Moreover, Al Qaeda in Lawdar in the southern province of Abyan, assassinated this week, the most active tribal leader in Lawdar, Tafik Al Junaidi who formed popular anti-Qaeda committees in the Al Qaeda-stricken areas in the south.

And militants of the Islamist opposition party, Islah , (brotherhood) assassinated a senior ruling party official who was the deputy governor of Dhammar province, Abdul Kareem Thafan, while he was getting out from his office on Saturday December 3, 2011.

Two of Thafan's bodyguards were also killed in the operation which sparked a lot of anger and fear of more similar and retaliatory acts.

Solution for Yemeni crisis goes on despite difficulties

2011-12-06T23:17:00.000-08:00

UN urges Yemen conflicting parties to stop killing civilians

2011-12-06T06:43:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters, 06/12/2011

GENEVA-The United Nations called on all factions in Yemen on Tuesday to cease attacks on civilians and urged the government to allow access for aid supplies and U.N. human rights monitors.

In coordinated statements, the U.N. human rights office, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Yemen Humanitarian Coordinator voiced concern about the deteriorating situation despite the signing of a peace deal nearly two weeks ago.

"We condemn continuing attacks on civilians particularly in Taiz where we are seeing reports that 22 people have been killed in shooting and shelling since Thursday last week (December 1), including two children," Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, told a news briefing.

"The continued use of disproportionate force by part of the government security forces despite commitments made to investigate serious human rights violations is extremely disappointing," she said. "The killings must stop immediately and we urge all sides to halt the use of violent force."

Forces loyal to outgoing Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh shot dead a woman at a protest march in Taiz on Monday, witnesses and activists said, despite tanks withdrawing under a ceasefire pact.

Anti-Saleh tribesmen brandishing Kalashnikov rifles and members of the Republican Guard, led by Saleh's son Ahmed, were still on many of Taiz's streets, witnesses said.

UNICEF said that its figures showed that 3 children had been killed and 7 injured in the latest round of violence in Taiz, some 200 km (120 miles) south of the capital Sanaa.

"That brings the total number of children killed so far to 138, the majority through live ammunition. This includes bullets, shelling and missile attacks," UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado said, adding that 568 children had been wounded to date.

"Our youngest victim thus far was 3 months old, killed in Taiz on the first of December," she told reporters in Geneva.

Heavy shelling and street fighting have damaged civilian neighbourhoods and forced many residents to flee their homes in Taiz, the Yemen Humanitarian Country Team that links U.N. and other aid agencies said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

"Access to basic social services is increasingly limited and schools and hospitals have been occupied or come under attack by armed forces and armed groups," depriving more than 100,000 children of access to schooling or health care, it said.

"We call upon all armed actors involved in the conflict in Taiz to ensure the safety and protection of all civilians in accordance with universally recognised principles of human rights and international humanitarian law," said Jens Toyberg-Frandzen, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

Yemen's Islamist party that leads the opposition undemocratic and fundamentalists make final decisions

2011-12-03T04:02:00.000-08:00

Islamist party commits suicide if it works alone

Yemen’s Opposition May Be Caught by Its Own Double Game

Source: The New York Times, By KAREEM FAHIM, 03/12/2011

SANA, Yemen — For years, Islah, the country’s largest and best organized opposition group, played a double game in Yemeni politics, maintaining close ties to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh while it also cultivated a network of supporters to defeat him.

Its shifting alliances, reflecting different currents within the movement, helped keep Islah ahead of its opposition rivals in Yemen. That strategy also kept Islah out of power, unable to credibly offer an alternative to a government it was seen to be in league with.

Now, with the increasing likelihood of Mr. Saleh’s exit, Islah, like Islamist organizations around the region, should be poised to win a strong showing at the polls. But that outcome may be in doubt: The strategy that kept the party afloat through the Saleh years may have undermined its credibility.

Unlike the largely untested Islamist parties that are rising to power in the wake of the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, Yemen’s Islamists may find that their long record in politics here, stretching over two decades, is a liability, analysts said. Islah’s leaders — even if they hold strong positions in the interim unity government — will have to contend with the party’s mixed record of governance, confusion about its ideological goals and the continued dominance of Mr. Saleh’s ruling party, which remains intact, analysts said.

Like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Yemeni movement has been dealing with increasingly visible divisions as it edges closer to greater power. Days after Islah’s leaders signed on to an agreement that required Mr. Saleh to hand over his executive powers in exchange for a promise of immunity, many of the group’s members were still protesting in the streets and fuming at what they saw as an unacceptable compromise.

“This is politics,” said Ali Mohammed al-Hadda, an Islah member sitting in Change Square, where protesters, including thousands of party members, have camped out for 10 months pressing for Mr. Saleh to resign. After the signing the deal, fights broke out between youth activists also furious at the agreement, and Islah members, who in turn, blamed their leaders.

“The revolution’s goals have not been met,” Mr. Hadda said. “We told them we are very angry.”

For their part, Islah’s leaders are trying to use the moment to reintroduce themselves to Yemenis. During a two-year transitional period that starts with a presidential election in February, they will share power with other opposition groups and the ruling party in a national unity government. Islah politicians are expected to be named to important cabinet posts.

Like other regional Islamist parties, some of Islah’s leaders are promoting their plans to fight corruption and create a civil state based on laws, while publicly playing down any talk of imposing a religious social agenda, for fear of frightening voters.

“The most important thing to do in this period is reassure people that we are not just seeking power,” said Rajeh Badi, the editor of Islah’s newspaper, As-Sahwah. “I think Islah is not going to work alone. Islah knows if it works alone, it commits suicide.”

Founded in 1990 by members of the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood and powerful tribesmen after the unification of North and South Yemen, Islah colluded with Mr. Saleh to blunt the influence of the Socialist Party. By the end of the decade, Islah had been transformed to the opposition, though one of its founders, Sheik Abdullah al-Ahmar, remained an ally of Mr. Saleh.

Strengthened by a highly effective recruitment policy, as well as its organizational skills and its provision of services the government could not provide, Islah became the country’s biggest opposition party.

Even so, Yemeni voters repeatedly denied the movement a mandate. In elections for local councils in 2006, Mr. Saleh, outmaneuvered the Islamists, who won far fewer seats than expected. Some of Islah’s own leaders, including Sheik Ahmar, propelled their rivals to victory by publicly endorsing Mr. Saleh.

The party has also had to face lingering resentment from southern Yemenis, who remember the role played by Islamist militias allied with the north during the civil war of 1994.

Yemeni analysts say Islah’s future success will depend in large part on how it manages its own diverse membership, in a party that includes Muslim Brotherhood members, ultraconservatives called Salafis, tribal sheiks and businessmen. Tawakkol Karman, the journalist and Nobel laureate whose arrest in January helped set off Yemen’s revolution, is affiliated with the group’s more moderate current.

On the other side is Abdul Majid al-Zindani, a onetime mentor to Osama bin Laden who was named a “specially designated global terrorist” by the United States Treasury Department in 2004. Mr. Zindani is the most the prominent leader of the old-guard camp that many Yemeni observers say still holds sway in the party, despite assertions by moderates that they are becoming more influential.

In March, Mr. Zindani spoke at Change Square, delivering the message that was both a signal of his break with Mr. Saleh and an indicator of his view of the party’s goals. “An Islamic state is coming!” he declared.

April Longley Alley, who studies Yemen for the International Crisis Group, said Islah’s organizational structure helped the movement bind some of its conflicting parts, but she added: “Some people who want to shift the party in a different direction have been stifled by the internal organization. The system appears to be undemocratic. The older generation of leadership seems to make the ultimate decisions.”

The battles within the movement have played out in public. Mr. Zindani was behind a push to form so-called Virtue Councils to regulate morality in public life. More recently, he and Ms. Karman were on opposite sides of one of the group’s more contentious battles, whether to raise the minimum age to 17 from 15 for marriage in a country where young girls, especially in rural areas, often marry in their early teens.

The measure was defeated in Parliament.

Islah members joined the protests in Sana this year, where its members turned out by the thousands, providing security, food and medical expertise to the pro-democracy camp.

That signaled the group’s most forceful break with Mr. Saleh, but also led to accusations that the party was trying to co-opt the demonstration. The opposition was joined by soldiers loyal to a defected major general, Ali Mohsin al-Ahmar, who has ties with the Islamist group.

Now, political activists trying to start new parties in Yemen are hoping that younger Islah members disillusioned by the party will consider leaving. “I know a lot of people who had no problem with Islah. But they saw the real face of Islah in the square,” said Najeeb Ghallab, a researcher at Sana University who considers himself a liberal.

Despite the internal divisions, many of Islah’s leaders are adamant that the party will not fracture, saying that such divides are normal for a political party, and healthy. Ali al-Ansi, an Islah lawmaker, said: “There are different debates, within every ideological group, taking place. The formal decision-making process is democratic,” he said.

Mr. Ansi said the ruling party was hoping, for its own reasons, for a split within Islah, but he added, “It would never take place.”

Three main challenges facing the solution, and Islamist party wants to gain from three fronts

2011-12-01T03:25:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,01/12:2011

Three big obstacles are facing the International community-supported political process to end the one-year long crisis of Yemen.

The first one is the ongoing war between the government forces and militants of the Islamic party, Islah, in Taiz, Arhab and Nehm.

The tribal militants claim they defend the protesters. Five soldiers were killed and 15 others injured on Thursday, December 1, 2011, in Taiz in the fighting with the tribal militants who allegedly support protesters. Five protesters at least were killed in the same confrontation.

The second obstacle is the fighting between the Salafi Sunni fighters and Al Houthi Shiite fighters in the northern province of Saada.

The head of the Salafi, Yahya Al Hajouri, called Wednesday for Jihad (Holy war) against Al Houthi as "unbelievers".

" The greatest deed to get closer and closer to Allah Almighty is to fight Al Houthi, Rafedha," said Al Hajouri in a statement addressed to the Islamic Ummah.

Al Houthi and Salafis exchange accusations that the government is supporting one of them against the other.

Obviously, the Islamist party, Islah, wants to achieve from three different fronts: It wants to have the lion's share from the negotiations with the ruling party, as the leader of the opposition.

And it wants to gain from the war its supporters and members are launching against the government forces and loyal tribesmen in Taiz, Arhab and Nehm.

The third front from which Islah wants to gain, is the protesters in the streets whose majority belong to Islah. Inspired and instructed by Islah, the protesters keep refusing the GCC deal which was signed by Islah and the other opposition parties.

The third obstacle facing the implementation of the GCC is the separation movement of the south, Al Hirak.

Al Houthi and Hirak refuse the GCC deal.

The international community needs to take these challenges into considerations and support the political process and encourage Yemenis to rebuild their country.

Yemenis have just started to rebuild their country after about one year of wars and unrest.

However, they are still facing a lot of challenges. To build is much more difficult than to destroy.

The most important two decisions to rebuild the new Yemen were taken immediately after the conflicting parties signed last week a road map showing step by step how both the opposition and the ruling party would run the country until February 2014 when a civil and democratic State is fully established.

The first decision was to call on Yemenis to elect a new President on February 21st, 2012 to run the country during the coming two years required for establishing the long-awaited modern State that would meet the ambitions and aspirations of all Yemenis.

The second decision was to entrust an opposition leader to form a national consensus government shared equally by both the opposition and the ruling party to normalize the life after the wars and help the new elected president to establish the new State.

The two important decisions were taken by the Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who has now constitutional powers to implement the Saudi-led Gulf brokered deal for transferring the power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

According to the GCC deal and its implementation mechanism, which were signed by all conflicting parties on November 23rd, 2011 in the Saudi capital Riyadh, President Saleh will remain legitimate until a new president is elected on February 21st, 2011.

The candidate of both the opposition and the ruling party in the February Presidential elections must be the current Vice President Mr Hadi, according to the road map, which is called the implementation mechanism, which was drawn by the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar and approved and signed by all conflicting parties in Yemen.

Undoubtedly, Mr Hadi would be the new elected President for the two years of transitional period.

By then, Hadi will have his legitimacy directly from the people, not like the case now when his powers come only from the constitutional authorization of President Saleh.

During next week, the unity government will be declared and its members will take the constitutional oath before Mr Hadi.

To avoid the conflict over the important ministries like the defense and oil, the opposition will make two lists with each one having 50 percent of the portfolios. And the ruling party will choose one of the lists to be occupied by its members.

The UN Security Council and international community supported the agreement which came as implementation of its resolution 2014.

The SC urged the two sides to stick to all steps of the road map and implement them on time. The two sides should stop violence, and whoever violates would be held accountable.

The president Saleh from his side, issued a general amnesty for all Yemenis who made mistakes against the government during the 11 month of the crisis.

But the Presidential amnesty does not include those who tried to assassinate Saleh on June 3, 2011.

Although the solution of the Yemeni crisis was and is supported by the whole international community, a lot of difficulties are facing the implementation of the road map. The most dangerous challenge is the security and military situation.

The militants of the Islamist party, Islah, are still in sporadic confrontations with the army and security in many places like Taiz and Arhab.

The separatist movement in the south and Al Houth Shiite rebels in the north and some independent youth, still refuse the GCC deal.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar said Monday November 28, 2011, that the separatist movement in the south and Al Houthi in the north and the independent youth should be represented in the new interim government.

The separatist movement in the south insist on separation and having their own independent state. Al Houthi group wants to establish their own Shiite state in the north at the borders with the Sunni Saudi Arabia.

More than 30 Salafi people were killed last week in battles between Al Houthi Shiite fighters and Salafi fighters in the area of Dammaj, in Saada, north of the country.

Al Houthi group says, the Salafi center in Damnaj was established in the early 1980s by the Yemeni and Saudi governments with the aim of abolishing the Shiite.

The Dammaj Salafi school has about 12,000 students from Yemen and outside Yemen.

About 11 foreign students were killed in the battles of last week in Dammaj according to the spokesman of the Salafi school, Abu Ismail.

Yemeni Nobel peace prize winner is not Mother Teresa, but political Islamist

2011-11-30T08:57:00.000-08:00

Source; Hudson New York,

Whitewashing the Muslim Brotherhood
Nobel Peace Prize for a "Muslim Sister"

by Valentina Colombo
November 30, 2011

Once again the West has chosen among the heroes and heroines of the "Arab Spring" the most politicized, and especially the closest, to its short-sighted policies in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, as mentioned by al-Mashari Dhaid on the Arab international daily Asharq al-Awsat, we should never forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace is political, and it "is an instrument of soft pressure to fulfill a specific path of peace or stability, according to a Western perspective."

Mashari al-Dhaid is right when he states that "Tawakkul Karman is not Mother Teresa, but a political activist who acts in accordance with the directives and policies and social needs of her own party."

The Yemeni Congregation for Reform, to which Karman belongs, is the party representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Yemen. Tawakkul Karman is 'Abd al-Salam Khalid Karman's daughter, a member of the same party. The Reform Party, as you can easily infer from its political program published on the official website (www.al-islah.net), acts on behalf of Islam and claims the implementation of sharia law, advocates equality among believers without distinction of sex, even though sharia law states that a woman is worth half the man (see Koran II, 282; IV, 11).

Tawakkul Karman is indeed an activist: a political activist. There is no doubt that she is the symbol of a revolution, but at the same time her victory has to be placed in the continuum of Arab Springs that are witnessing the domination of the organized and economically strong Muslim Brotherhood.

The Nobel Prize follows the International Women of Courage Award assigned to Karman by US State Secretary Hillary Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama. Everything confirms the US and Western policy of whitewashing the Muslim Brotherhood. And what a better leader and symbol than a young and determined woman like Karman? During an interview, in June 2010, she declared that the day would come when "all human rights violators pay for what they did to Yemen." If she was referring to Yemeni President Saleh, fine; but I wonder if human rights under Sharia -- the law her party would like to introduce in all levels of the country = match universal rights.

"In the name of God Most Gracious, Most Merciful, to sister Tawakkul 'Abd al-Salam Karman, president of Women Journalists Without Chains, a member of the Governing Council of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform (al-tajammu' al-yamani li-al-islah), greetings and appreciation. With great joy we have received, within the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, the announcement of the assignment to your person of the Nobel Prize for Peace as the first Arab woman to receive this award and the first Yemeni personality to enjoy this international attestation of esteem.

"Congratulations for this historic achievement since we believe that this victory is to support the peaceful revolution of Yemen, and a Yemeni woman who fights and who is aware of her ability to win despite the obstacles the legacy of backwardness and tyranny that separate our people from progress."

This is the beginning of a release of October 8th 2010 signed by Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Yadumi following the announcement of the Nobel Prize for Peace to the Yemeni activist Tawakkul Karman.

Well, many of us were happy because finally an Arab woman, last but not least a symbol of the Yemeni "Spring" had her efforts and courage recognised. Even secular intellectuals like the Yemeni political scientist Elham Manea, of Yemeni origin, who now is living in Switzerland, and the Yemeni writer Ali al-Muqri, have rejoiced.

While in many other countries, Islamic parties are banned, Islah participates in the political process and has even formed a coalition government with the ruling General People's Congress. One significant difference between Islah and other Islamic parties is that it is not purely an Islamic Party. The Islah Party is a heterogeneous party made up of three distinct groups: the tribes, Islamic elements and conservative businessmen. Islah could be described as a reflection of the conservative segments of Yemeni society. Nevertheless, it has an Islamic ideology and pushes for social and economic reform, similarly to other Islamic parties in the region.

Some people even praised Karman as the woman who has "torn" the veil. This is half true: in 2004 during a conference on human rights, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace removed her black full veil, worn by the vast majority of Yemeni women, to replace it with a simple veil, which she calls "Islamic." The statement published on the website of her Party after a demonstration celebrate the award says that it is a "source of pride and honor not only for Yemeni women, but also for Arab women and the Islamic veil."

So Karman replaced the traditional black veil -- "un-Islamic"-- in favor of a colorful headscarf that is not so much a symbol of Muslim women, as of the women of the Muslim Brotherhood, or at least of women wearing the veil as a political symbol.

New Yemen being built

2011-11-30T01:24:00.001-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,30/11/2011

Yemenis have just started to rebuild their country after about one year of wars and unrest.

However, they are still facing a lot of challenges. To build is much more difficult than to destroy.

The most important two decisions to rebuild the new Yemen were taken immediately after the conflicting parties signed last week a road map showing step by step how both the opposition and the ruling party would run the country until February 2014 when a civil and democratic State is fully established.

The first decision was to call on Yemenis to elect a new President on February 21st, 2012 to run the country during the coming two years required for establishing the long-awaited modern State that would meet the ambitions and aspirations of all Yemenis.

The second decision was to entrust an opposition leader to form a national consensus government shared equally by both the opposition and the ruling party to normalize the life after the wars and help the new elected president to establish the new State.

The two important decisions were taken by the Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who has now constitutional powers to implement the Saudi-led Gulf brokered deal for transferring the power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

According to the GCC deal and its implementation mechanism, which were signed by all conflicting parties on November 23rd, 2011 in the Saudi capital Riyadh, President Saleh will remain legitimate until a new president is elected on February 21st, 2011.

The candidate of both the opposition and the ruling party in the February Presidential elections must be the current Vice President Mr Hadi, according to the road map, which is called the implementation mechanism, which was drawn by the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar and approved and signed by all conflicting parties in Yemen.

Undoubtedly, Mr Hadi would be the new elected President for the two years of transitional period.

By then, Hadi will have his legitimacy directly from the people, not like the case now when his powers come only from the constitutional authorization of President Saleh.

During next week, the unity government will be declared and its members will take the constitutional oath before Mr Hadi.

To avoid the conflict over the important ministries like the defense and oil, the opposition will make two lists with each one having 50 percent of the portfolios. And the ruling party will choose one of the lists to be occupied by its members.

The UN Security Council and international community supported the agreement which came as implementation of its resolution 2014.

The SC urged the two sides to stick to all steps of the road map and implement them on time. The two sides should stop violence, and whoever violates would be held accountable.

The president Saleh from his side, issued a general amnesty for all Yemenis who made mistakes against the government during the 11 month of the crisis.

But the Presidential amnesty does not include those who tried to assassinate Saleh on June 3, 2011.

Although the solution of the Yemeni crisis was and is supported by the whole international community, a lot of difficulties are facing the implementation of the road map. The most dangerous challenge is the security and military situation.

The militants of the Islamist party, Islah, are still in sporadic confrontations with the army and security in many places like Taiz and Arhab.

The separatist movement in the south and Al Houth Shiite rebels in the north and some independent youth, still refuse the GCC deal.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar said Monday November 28, 2011, that the separatist movement in the south and Al Houthi in the north and the independent youth should be represented in the new interim government.

The separatist movement in the south insist on separation and having their own independent state. Al Houthi group wants to establish their own Shiite state in the north at the borders with the Sunni Saudi Arabia.

More than 30 Salafi people were killed last week in battles between Al Houthi Shiite fighters and Salafi fighters in the area of Dammaj, in Saada, north of the country.

Al Houthi group says, the Salafi center in Damnaj was established in the early 1980s by the Yemeni and Saudi governments with the aim of abolishing the Shiite.

The Dammaj Salafi school has about 12,000 students from Yemen and outside Yemen.

About 11 foreign students were killed in the battles of last week in Dammaj according to the spokesman of the Salafi school, Abu Ismail.

New Yemen being built

2011-11-30T01:24:00.000-08:00

The UNSC welcomes Yemen agreement to end crisis and urges parties to implement it on time

2011-11-28T20:58:00.000-08:00

Source: UN News, 29/11/2011

New York-The Security Council today welcomed the new political agreement in Yemen and the mechanism outlining how it can be implemented, but stressed that the deal must be strictly implemented to end unrest and restore stability in the country.

The peace initiative by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the implementation mechanism agreed to on Wednesday must be carried out in “in a serious, transparent, and timely manner, and in a spirit of inclusion and reconciliation,” the Council said in a press statement.

The Council expects the parties “to honour the timetable set out in the agreement, including the formation of a government of national consensus, presidential elections within 90 days, a national dialogue, a constitutional review, and a programme of reforms that start to tackle the profound humanitarian, economic and security challenges that Yemen faces.”

In the statement, read out by Ambassador José Filipe Moraes Cabral of Portugal, which holds the Council’s presidency this month, the 15-member panel reaffirmed its commitment to Yemen’s territorial integrity and unity, and urged all parties to reject violence, refrain from provocation, and fully implement the Council’s previous resolution on restoring peace in the impoverished country.

It reiterated that all those responsible for violence, human rights violations and abuses should be held accountable, and deplored acts of violence that occurred on Thursday, when five people were reportedly killed in the capital, Sana’a.

The Council stressed the need for increased and unimpeded humanitarian access, and urged all Yemeni parties to work with the UN, the international community and the GCC to achieve lasting peace, stability and reconciliation.

Earlier, Jamal Benomar, the UN Special Adviser on Yemen, told reporters after briefing the Council that the accord paves the way for a credible transition and provides a detailed roadmap for change through the broad participation of citizens.

“The implementation envisions meaningful participation across the full political spectrum, including the youth who paved the way for this change in the political order,” Mr. Benomar said of the pact.

“It is imperative that the new Government of National Unity engages with all constituencies including the youth, the Houthis, and the Hirak movement in the south,” he said.

Under the accord, President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to hand over his powers to Vice-President Abed Rabbo Mansour al-Hadi and presidential elections are to be held within three months.

“All Yemenis will now need to come together to reconcile, and to tackle the difficulties that lie ahead,” he said, noting that “violence and unrest has continued despite the reaching of a political solution on 23 November.”

He said he had told the Council that all Yemeni parties will need to take responsibility and use the opportunity to foster positive change for the country, uphold human rights and desist from further violence.

Mr. Benomar urged the international community to step up support for Yemen’s recovery, as requested by both parties to the agreement. The UN and the rest of the international community will monitor the accord’s implementation and remain engaged, he said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remained fully committed to supporting the transition and the post-election period through mobilizing the entire UN and Member States to help Yemen address its political, humanitarian, security and economic challenges, Mr. Benomar added.

The Council was also briefed on the humanitarian situation in Yemen by Philippe Lazzarini, the Deputy Director of the Coordination and Response Division of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Last week’s political agreement followed months of deadly clashes between supporters and opponents of Mr. Saleh and his regime, part of the so-called Arab Spring movement that has swept the Middle East and North Africa this year.

Yemeni opposition leader asked to form national unity gov't

2011-11-28T01:44:00.001-08:00

Source:Xinhua,28/11/2011

SANAA- Head of Yemen's opposition National Council Mohammed Basindwa was named as new prime minister on Sunday to form a national unity government in line with a power transfer deal, the official Saba news agency reported.

"Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi designated Mohamed Basindwa to form a new national unity government to replace the caretaker government of Ali Mohammed Mujawar," Saba quoted a decree issued by Hadi as saying.

Basindwa, a former member of the ruling party of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, would form a cabinet set to rule until early presidential elections in February 2012.

The step was part of the power transfer deal signed by Saleh last Wednesday in Riyadh.

It was Hadi's second move to implement the UN-backed Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) reconciliation agreement after Saleh agreed to transfer power to his deputy.

On Saturday, the vice president called early presidential elections for Feb. 21 according to the agreement aimed at ending months of pro-democracy protests which demanded an end to Saleh's 33-year rule.

Basindwa was due to form a government with equal participation of the opposition and the ruling party within one week, officials said.

Basindwa, born in 1935, served as the country's foreign minister from 1993 to 1994 and later joined the opposition.

If the agreement goes according to plan, Saleh, who was allowed to retain his ceremonial title in the coming three months, will become the fourth Arab ruler brought down by mass demonstrations.

Hours before the nomination decree, Saleh announced amnesty at a meeting for prisoners jailed during the country's 10-month political crisis this year.

"We granted pardon for everyone committed errors during the crisis, except those who were involved in the June bombing attack against the mosque of the presidential palace," leaders of the ruling party were told.

After the meeting, Hadi ordered to withdraw troops from the streets of the capital Sanaa in line with the terms of the GCC deal, a senior official of the Defense Ministry told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

However, unrest continued to plague the Arabian peninsular country on Sunday with clashes between Shiite Houthi rebels and Sunni Islamist Salafi, killing at least 24 people in the north.

"The shelling by Shiite rebels targeted a Sunni-run Islamic school and its neighboring areas in the Houthi-held restive province of Saada, killing 24 people, including three foreign students -- two Indonesians and one American national," said a provincial security official.

In the southern province of Taiz, witnesses said government troops on Sunday morning shelled the downtown area, where tens of thousands of protesters have been camping for months to press for the prosecution of Saleh.

Two people were killed and four others wounded in the attack, a medic at the protesters' camp said.

Yemeni opposition leader asked to form national unity gov't

2011-11-28T01:44:00.000-08:00

In Yemen, Spate of Killings Defy UN Order

2011-11-26T00:25:00.000-08:00

Source: Human Rights Watch,

26/11/2011

(New York)- troops appear to have unlawfully killed as many as 35 civilians in the city of Taizz since a United Nations Security Council resolution demanded on October 21, 2011 that Yemen stop attacks on civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. Most of these civilians were killed in artillery shelling by the Yemeni army that indiscriminately struck homes, a hospital, and a public square filled with protesters, witnesses told Human Rights Watch.

The Security Council should work toward imposing an asset freeze and a travel ban on President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other senior officials responsible for these and previous attacks on civilians when it meets November 28 to discuss the crisis in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said. The Security Council also should dissociate itself from the portion of an agreement that Saleh signed on November 23 that offers the president and other top officials immunity for serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in exchange for leaving office.

“The army’s indiscriminate shelling in Taizz shows President Saleh’s brazen disregard for the lives of Yemeni civilians right up to the time he signed a deal to transfer power,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Because President Saleh’s signature is only as good as the actions that follow, concerned governments and the UN Security Council should still impose targeted sanctions until these unlawful attacks stop and hold Yemeni authorities accountable.”

In Resolution 2014 of October 21, the Security Council called on the Saleh government to immediately end human rights violations in Yemen, including attacks on civilians by the security forces, and urged Saleh to cede power under an agreement brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Saleh signed the GCC pact on November 23 but has yet to leave office. The pact offers Saleh immunity in exchange for relinquishing power, but the Security Council also declared that, “All those responsible for violence, human rights violations and abuses should be held accountable.” On November 28 the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, will brief the Security Council on the Yemeni authorities’ progress.

In November Human Rights Watch investigated shelled areas in Taizz, about 250 kilometers south of the capital, Sanaa, and interviewed nearly 50 witnesses, human rights activists, and medical workers about the recent attacks. Taizz has been a focal point for the mostly peaceful protests across Yemen that began in February against Saleh’s 33-year rule. Since June, government forces in Taizz have been fighting tribal opposition fighters and renegade troops who support the protesters.

Human Rights Watch found that army units conducted indiscriminate shelling in violation of the laws of war that probably accounts for the majority – if not all – of the 35 civilian deaths since October 21. The units deployed include the elite Republican Guards, under the command of President Saleh’s son Ahmed. Human Rights Watch also found that many opposition fighters were deployed in densely populated areas, unlawfully placing civilians at grave risk.

In addition to the attacks in Taizz, witnesses told Human Rights Watch that pro-government gunmen killed five anti-Saleh protesters who were participating in a peaceful march on November 24 in Sanaa, and that government forces and renegade soldiers continued deadly clashes there on November 25.

In Taizz, the deadliest attacks, on November 11, killed 14 civilians, including three women protesters in Freedom Square. Government shelling and other attacks that day also killed six children, including a four-year-old girl, in her home, three men at a shop near a mosque, another man in his home, and a patient at al-Rawdha Hospital, which was struck as emergency workers arrived with wounded from other attacks.

Artillery shells and gunfire from government positions struck Freedom Square that day as protesters amassed for a midday rally called the “Day of Rejecting Immunity” for Saleh, three witnesses told Human Rights Watch. One shell landed in the midst of 10 women gathered for prayer, said Siraj Munir al-Adib, 25, who had been seated in an open tent:
Bullets were passing over our heads. I saw Abdullah Althaifani [a Taizz protest leader and university professor] shot by live fire in his right shoulder, in front of me. A few minutes later I heard a big explosion a few meters away. I ran over and saw women who were injured by shrapnel. They were screaming. Three others were killed.
About 20 opposition fighters protecting the protesters were stationed about 300 meters from the women, but they were not inside the square and there was no fighting nearby, the three witnesses said.

Protesters and emergency workers rushed the casualties from Freedom Square and other areas under attack to al-Rawdha Hospital, only to come under renewed shelling. Seven artillery and mortar shells struck the hospital over the course of several minutes, starting around 1 p.m., five witnesses said. One shell tore a hole through the wall of the fourth floor. A man fell through the hole to the street below and died soon after, witnesses said.

“We ran with the visitors, the doctors, the patients, and dozens of wounded to the basement of the hospital,” said Kafa'a Wazi’ Abdu, 36, who had helped bring wounded to al-Rawdha Hospital from Freedom Square. “The dust and smoke from the shelling was rising in front of us. I saw a wounded man in a bed lying on the ground, motionless, in a pool of blood.”

Al-Rawdha Hospital often treats wounded protesters and opposition fighters. It is 100 meters from an opposition checkpoint and 300 meters from a rebel leader’s compound. But no opposition fighters were deployed inside, witnesses said.

Yemeni authorities blamed soldiers of the renegade First Armored Division, which defected to the opposition in March, and the Joint Meeting Parties, a coalition of opposition political parties, for the November 11 deaths and other recent attacks on civilians in Taizz. But the shells in those attacks came from the direction of government security force positions, multiple witnesses said.

The laws of war apply to all parties to an armed conflict. The warring parties must take all feasible precautions to ensure that a target of attack is a military objective and not a civilian object. Attacks that do not discriminate between military targets and civilian objects are prohibited.

Under the laws of war, hospitals remain protected from attack unless they are “used to commit hostile acts” that are outside their humanitarian function. Even then, they are only subject to attack after a warning has been given setting a reasonable time limit, and after such warning has gone unheeded. The presence of injured combatants does not affect the civilian character of medical facilities.

Combatants also must take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control from the effects of attacks and avoid deploying in densely populated areas. Even if rebel forces deployed too close to the hospital, it would not justify violations by the government forces.

Saleh’s government has announced it will conduct a national investigation into major human rights violations since protests began. On November 21 Yemen’s parliament, which is dominated by the ruling party, announced it will investigate the recent attacks in Taizz. The government has rejected calls for an international inquiry.

“Many Yemenis have expressed a profound lack of confidence in the ability of government authorities to conduct impartial investigations into human rights abuses,” Stork said. “This creates a critical need for an independent international probe into possible violations.”

Yemenis rejoice over ending the crisis and the world welcome and promise to help

2011-11-24T02:14:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,24/11/2011

Yemenis were very happy to see the conflicting parties sign documents to end their 11-month long sufferings.

Almost the whole world welcomed the peaceful end of the crisis and the honorable exit of President Ali Abdullah Saleh who also expressed his happiness to see all Yemenis united to build the new Yemen.

"I am happy to see our brothers in the opposition participate with us, I never ever refused them," President Saleh said after he signed the GCC deal that would require him to step down when a new president is elected after 90 days from the date of signing.

Observers view the signing of the GCC deal and its scheduled mechanism of implementation as a big victory for the values of dialogue and peaceful transfer of power.

However, some of the protesters in the streets refused the GCC deal and criticized strongly the opposition parties describing their leaders as "traitors of the blood of the revolution martyrs".

But, the chairman of the supreme council of the opposition coalition to which most of those protesters belong, promised to allow representatives of the protesters participate in the political participation during the transitional period.

Dr.Yassin Saeed Noman, the chairman of the opposition council, reassured the protesters in a statement from Riyadh immediately after he participated in the signing ceremony.

"The new national compromised government would form a special committee to talk with the young protesters and let them participate in the political process during the transitional period," Noman said.

Earlier, the Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the GCC deal in the Saudi capital Riyadh in a ceremony sponsored by the Saudi King.

After president Saleh signed, the representatives of the ruling party and representatives of the opposition parties signed the road map of the GCC deal that shows in detail how and when the world-supported deal can be implemented.

The opposition leader Mohammed Ba Sandaw, said Tuesday before they left to Riyadh, that president Saleh would sign the GCC deal alone in Sanaa and then the ruling party delegation would go to Riyadh to sign the implementation mechanism.

Last May President Saleh backed out at the last minute from signing the GCC deal after the opposition and his party signed it, because the opposition leaders refused to attend the ceremony of signing in the Presidential Palace.

The justification of the opposition leaders at the time was that President Saleh's men would assassinate them in their way to the Palace.

Earlier, the Yemeni conflicting parties have agreed to end their 11-month political crisis.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar, thanked the them on Wednesday for reaching an agreement to implement the UN resolution 2014 which called the conflicting parties to peacefully solve the problem on the basis of the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative(GCC).

"All parties have agreed to implement the GCC deal, and I would like to thank all parties for their cooperation," said the UN envoy, Bin Omar in a very short brief to journalists in Sanaa late Tuesday.

Although the signing of the GCC and its implementation mechanism did not happen until Wednesday November23rd, the UN envoy seemed very confident that the conflicting parties would sign after he and the American and European ambassadors finished the arrangements of signing.

The documents of the GCC deal and its implementation mechanism would be signed in both the Saudi capital Riyadh,and the Yemeni capital Sanaa to appease all parties.

The three representatives of the opposition who would sign the documents already arrived in Riyadh late Tuesday,November 22nd.
They are the secretary general of the socialist party,Yaseen Saeed Noman,who is also the chairman of the supreme council of the Islamist-led opposition coalition, and the secretary general of the Islamist party,Islah, Abdul Wahab Al Ansi, and the third representative is the chairman of what is called the national council of the revolution forces, Mohammed Salem Basandwa, who represents the defected tribal forces, particularly Al Ahmar family.

The three representatives from the government side, are expected to arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday.

They are: vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the political advisor of President Saleh, Dr. Abdul Kareem Al Eryani,and the foreign minister, Abu Bakr Al Querbi.

The UN secretary general himself, Ban Ki Mon,thanked president Saleh for reacting and responding to the UN resolution 2014 and also for his responsible leadership.

On his part,president Saleh thanked Ban Ki Mon for all efforts to solve the Yemeni crisis peacefully.

According to the State-run news agency, Saba, in the telephone conversation, Salehb said that the UN must continue to monitor the implementation of the GCC deal after the signing.

However, the protesters in the streets criticized the opposition parties for agreeing on the GCC deal saying it will be only in the interest of President Saleh.

But this refusal is viewed by observers as kind of maneuvering to
strengthen the opposition to have more political gains while negotiating, as more than 90 percent of those protesters are members of the opposition parties and they listen and follow the instructions of their parties.

The Islamist party, Islah, that leads the opposition coalition, which includes Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserite, has the overwhelming majority of the partisan protesters in the streets.

The implementation mechanism of the GCC deal to be signed, would be divided into two stages:

The first stage is from the moment of signing until a new president is elected within 90 days.

The second stage is from the time of announcing the results of election until the end of the transitional period two years later when a referendum on a new constitution starts and then new elections.

In the first stage, President Saleh will keep as president but without real powers.

Saleh will transfer his constitutional powers to his deputy Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.

Mr. Hadi will entrust a person chosen by the opposition to form a national unity government which will be shared by the ruling party with fifty pet cent.

This government will not allow any member from the ruling party or from the opposition of those who are accused of violence and violation of human rights.

Then, the parliament will issue a law that will protect both members of the opposition and Saleh's regime from any prosecution.

The government will form a military and security committee chaired by Mr Hadi to remove the check points and military positions from the streets.

The commanders of the military and security forces will remain in their positions including the son and nephews of Saleh and also the defected general Ali Muhsen, at least until a new president is elected after 90 days from signing.
Mr. Hadi, who is from the south, and who is respected almost by all parties, will likely be the compromised candidate for both the opposition and the ruling party.

Yemeni president in Riyadh to attend ceremony of ending the crisis

2011-11-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,23/11/2011

The Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh to attend the signing ceremony of the GCC deal for power transfer.

Earlier, the Yemeni conflicting parties have finally agreed to end their 11-month political crisis.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar, thanked the them on Wednesday for reaching an agreement to implement the UN resolution 2014 which called the conflicting parties to peacefully solve the problem on the basis of the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative(GCC).

"All parties have agreed to implement the GCC deal, and I would like to thank all parties for their cooperation," said the UN envoy, Bin Omar in a very short brief to journalists in Sanaa late Tuesday.

Although the signing of the GCC and its implementation mechanism did not happen until Wednesday November23rd, the UN envoy seemed very confident that the conflicting parties would sign after he and the American and European ambassadors finished the arrangements of signing.

The documents of the GCC deal and its implementation mechanism would be signed in both the Saudi capital Riyadh,and the Yemeni capital Sanaa to appease all parties.

The three representatives of the opposition who would sign the documents already arrived in Riyadh late Tuesday,November 22nd.
They are the secretary general of the socialist party,Yaseen Saeed Noman,who is also the chairman of the supreme council of the Islamist-led opposition coalition, and the secretary general of the Islamist party,Islah, Abdul Wahab Al Ansi, and the third representative is the chairman of what is called the national council of the revolution forces, Mohammed Salem Basandwa, who represents the defected tribal forces, particularly Al Ahmar family.

The three representatives from the government side, are expected to arrive in Riyadh on Wednesday.

They are: vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the political advisor of President Saleh, Dr. Abdul Kareem Al Eryani,and the foreign minister, Abu Bakr Al Querbi.

The UN secretary general himself, Ban Ki Mon,thanked president Saleh for reacting and responding to the UN resolution 2014 and also for his responsible leadership.

On his part,president Saleh thanked Ban Ki Mon for all efforts to solve the Yemeni crisis peacefully.

According to the State-run news agency, Saba, in the telephone conversation, Salehb said that the UN must continue to monitor the implementation of the GCC deal after the signing.

However, the protesters in the streets criticized the opposition parties for agreeing on the GCC deal saying it will be only in the interest of President Saleh.

But this refusal is viewed by observers as kind of maneuvering to
strengthen the opposition to have more political gains while negotiating, as more than 90 percent of those protesters are members of the opposition parties and they listen and follow the instructions of their parties.

The Islamist party, Islah, that leads the opposition coalition, which includes Islamists, Socialists, and Nasserite, has the overwhelming majority of the partisan protesters in the streets.

The implementation mechanism of the GCC deal to be signed, would be divided into two stages:

The first stage is from the moment of signing until a new president is elected within 90 days.

The second stage is from the time of announcing the results of election until the end of the transitional period two years later when a referendum on a new constitution starts and then new elections.

In the first stage, President Saleh will keep as president but without real powers.

Saleh will transfer his constitutional powers to his deputy Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.

Mr. Hadi will entrust a person chosen by the opposition to form a national unity government which will be shared by the ruling party with fifty pet cent.

This government will not allow any member from the ruling party or from the opposition of those who are accused of violence and violation of human rights.

Then, the parliament will issue a law that will protect both members of the opposition and Saleh's regime from any prosecution.

The government will form a military and security committee chaired by Mr Hadi to remove the check points and military positions from the streets.

The commanders of the military and security forces will remain in their positions including the son and nephews of Saleh and also the defected general Ali Muhsen, at least until a new president is elected after 90 days from signing.
Mr. Hadi, who is from the south, and who is respected almost by all parties, will likely be the compromised candidate for both the opposition and the ruling party.

Yemeni women have their own revolution to equal men

2011-11-17T08:24:00.000-08:00

Source: CNN, 17/11/2011

Editor's note: Afrah Nasser is a Yemeni freelance journalist and blogger. She left Yemen in May 2011 after recieving threats for her anti-regime writings and opinions. She currently lives in Sweden. She tweets as @Afrahnasser.
(CNN) -- It's hard not to become distressed, when I'm carefully following the situation in Yemen since violence got worse. It's even more troublesome not to become distressed thinking that there is a bleak future waiting for Yemen.

The fight by the security forces against unarmed protesters is indeed inhuman. More than 2,000 protesters have been murdered and more than 8,000 wounded by security forces across Yemen.

Admittedly, the uprising has a long way to go but one of its great merits so far is the exceptional participation of women.

I have been astonished by the growing numbers of female protesters as the uprising has proceeded. It started with just a few women; then day after day the number multiplied.

Thousands of female protesters have been actively participating in demonstrations across the country since February 2011.

Female doctors have been playing an important role treating wounded protesters and female activists have been running seminars on political issues.

I was astonished with the growing number of female protesters as the uprising proceeded.

Mr Saleh's (Yemen's current president) security forces arrested four female doctors on 19 April 2011, while the doctors were marching along with a peaceful demonstration to provide medical help if needed. The female doctors were released after a huge condemnation and pressure from protesters.

Even female protesters were not immune from the savage killing by pro-government thugs. On the 16 October 2011, I was saddened to see a female protester being shot dead by a thug's bullets.

Aziza Othman was murdered in Taiz during an attack at a peaceful and unarmed protest by women. A very important recognition of women's participation in Yemen's uprising is the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Tawakkol Karman, one of the leading pro-democracy figures in Yemen.
I believe that there are several motives behind this amazing participation by women -- I myself joined the protests and rallies because I want to build and improve my country.

I wanted it to be a double revolution; a political one to topple President Saleh and a feminist one to ensure that women have equal rights in what Yemenis hope will be a new Yemen. It was a double political statement: First, that women have as much right to call for democracy as men, and an indirect message to lift gender apartheid.

Indeed, it's been hard to be a woman in Yemen. A woman's gender, by default, deprives her of rights enjoyed by men. Women in Yemen have been always marginalized in law. As in many developing countries, women in Yemen suffer from limited access to healthcare, economic opportunities and education.

I remember vividly attending a seminar in Sana'a by Amal al-Basha, one of the leading feminist and human rights activists in Yemen and founder of The Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights in in March this year. I asked her, "Do you think that the uprising will serve women's rights?"

"We have been dealing with a state system that marginalised women for over three decades; unfairly snatching their rights," she said. "Women in Yemen have only a restrained degree of legal protection in regard to family matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance.

I wanted it to be a double revolution; a political one to topple Saleh and a feminist one to assure that women have equal rights

"Many women in Yemen are forced to get married when they are still children. This corrupt system means women in Yemen have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Seven women are raped every month in Yemen, with no concrete punishment from the state for rapists.

"Women in Yemen also suffer from illiteracy. The current system provides a relatively low degree of protection for women's physical integrity.

"There are no laws against domestic violence and the law does not recognize the concept of spousal rape. There is zero observation and accountability by the government to ban the practice of female genital mutilation. How can women not call for change! Of course the uprising will serve women's rights," she told me.

In a nutshell, the participation of women in the uprising has huge merit. What women have done so far embodies their civil and political liberty.
Bearing in mind that freedom for women in Yemen is usually subject to numerous limitations; their participation in the uprising is extraordinary. What they are doing is really a protest against socio-political norms that have always limited their freedoms.

Signing GCC deal in both Riyadh and Sana’a

2011-11-17T01:34:00.000-08:00

Challenges facing UN Envoy to Yemen to end crisis
By Nasser Arrabyee , 17/11/2011

The signing on the GCC deal and its implementation mechanism would take place early next week in both the Saudi capital Riyadh and the Yemeni capital Sana’a, said government sources on Thursday.
The initial signing would happen in Riyadh and then the final would be in Sana’a. The Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi would sign both documents for the government side, the sources said.
It's been one week now since the UN envoy arrived to Yemen to end the 10-month long political crisis.

In the first week of his current sixth round, Jamal Bin Omar has achieved very little, but still seemed determined and optimistic to achieve more before he briefs the Security Council on November 21st, 2011.

On Tuesday November 15th, Bin Omar discussed with President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the presidential palace in Sana’a the steps of transferring the power according to the internationally and regionally supported deal which was brokered by the Saudi-led six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, GCC.

In the meeting Saleh said he is sticking to the GCC and the UNSC resolution 2014 which urged the conflicting parties to implement the GCC deal.

Bin Omar said the UN resolution 2014 calls for a compromised political solution based on the GCC deal. The political solution is an early presidential elections with the opposition and ruling party agreeing on one candidate.

This candidate would most likely be the current vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.

However, leaders of the Islamist-led opposition parties are still outside Yemen until late Tuesday despite the repeated calls for them to come back from Bin Omar, US and EU ambassadors. However, they are expected to get back and meet Bin Omar before he leave Sana’a on Saturday November 19th, 2011, for New York to brief the UN Security Council on what he achieved.

Bin Omar said the international community would condemn any party that would not stop violence and violation of human rights. He also said there would no guarantees for any violator of human rights and freedoms.

He regretted the continuation of violence from the armed conflicting parties which caused a lot of sufferings to civilians. He said he and UN is against violence from any party.

President Saleh said he is ready to step down within 90 days maximum if his deputy reached a scheduled mechanism for implementing the GCC deal.

" I am not clinging to power, whoever clings to power is a mad," Saleh said on Monday in televised statements.

But Saleh said without reaching an agreement on how and when to implement the GCC deal , Yemenis will go to an all-out civil war.

Two important and controversial issues faced the UN envoy since he arrived last week.

The ruling party wanted the GCC initiative to be signed simultaneously with its implementation mechanism while the opposition wanted President Saleh or his deputy to sign the GCC first and then its implementation mechanism signed in Riyadh later.

The ruling party wanted the leaders of the opposition to get back from outside Yemen to finalize the last details of the implementation mechanism of the GCC. To find a middle point, the signing on the two documents (GCC deal and its implementation mechanism) might happen in Riyadh and Sana’a. The initial signing would happen in Riyadh and then the final would be in Sana’a. The Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi would sign both documents for the government side.

The secretary general of the socialist party, Yassin Saeed Noman, secretary general of the Islamist party, Abdul Wahab Al Ansi,and chairman of the national council, Mohammed Ba Sundwa are still mobilizing support outside Yemen since middle of October and they do not want to get back until the GCC is signed despite the American and European calls for them to get back.

The ruling party also wants guarantees From opposition or from international community to end protests as soon as the national government is formed according to the implementation mechanism of the GCC.

The opposition keep saying their protesters have the right to demonstrate and sit in regardless of any agreement between the parties.

Furthermore, there are three considerable groups who completely refuse the GCC deal as a solution for the Yemeni crisis.

In south, the southern separatist movement group refuses the GCC deal and describes it as a northern issue that has nothing to do with them.

The Shiite rebels of Al Houthi in the north,also refuse the GCC deal as something that excludes them and enhances the persecution from the sunni groups from which they have been complaining.

The GCC deal is believed to be in favor of the historic opponents of the Shiite Al Houthi group.

The sunni Islamist party, Islah and the defected general Ali Muhsen, who is very close to Islah and who led six wars against Al Houthi, are the historic opponents of Al Houthi group.

Al Houthi group is the second largest and influential group after Islah that dominates the Yemen main opposition coalition which includes Islamists, Socialists and Nasserites.

From March to this month, hundreds of people were killed and injured in fierce battles between Islah and Houthi in Al Jawf, Saada and Hajja provinces. Each group wants to control as much as possible of these provinces in the absence of the central government because of the current unrest.

On Monday November 14th, 2011, for instance, 10 people from both sides were killed after Al Houthi fighters arrested and killed a suicide bomber allegedly from Islah who tried to blow himself up in a big group of Al Houthi followers who were celebrating their sacred annual day of Al Ghafeer in the area of Matoon, in Al Jawf province, north east of Yemen.

The third group that refuses the GCC deal is Al Qaeda. This terrorist group denies both the opposition and the government and described them as the
"agents of Americans, the enemies of Muslims and Islam".

In the areas under their control as Taliban-Style Islamic Emirates in the south of the country, Al Qaeda whips, cuts hands, and executes as punishments for anyone who violates what they call Shariah law

Challenges facing UN Envoy to Yemen to end crisis

2011-11-15T09:44:00.001-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee , 15/11/2011

It's been one week now since the UN envoy arrived to Yemen to end the 10-month long political crisis.

In the first week of his current sixth round, Jamal Bin Omar has achieved very little,but still seemed determined and optimistic to achieve more before he briefs the Security Council on November 21st, 2011.

On Tuesday November 15th, Bin Omar discussed with President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the presidential palace in Sanaa the steps of transferring the power according to the internationally and regionally supported deal which was brokered by the Saudi-led six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council,GCC.

In the meeting Saleh said he is sticking to the GCC and the UNSC resolution 2014 which urged the conflicting parties to implement the GCC deal.

Bin Omar said the UN resolution 2014 calls for a compromised political solution based on the GCC deal. The political solution is an early presidential elections with the opposition and ruling party agreeing on one candidate.

This candidate would most likely be the current vice president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi.

However, leaders of the Islamist-led opposition parties are still outside Yemen until late Tuesday despite the repeated calls for them to come back from Bin Omar, US and EU ambassadors.

Bin Omar said the international community would condemn any party that would not stop violence and violation of human rights.

He regretted the continuation of violence from the armed conflicting parties which caused a lot of sufferings to civilians.

President Saleh said he is ready to step down within 90 days maximum if his deputy reached a scheduled mechanism for implementing the GCC deal.

" I am not clinging to power, whoever clings to power is a mad," Saleh said on Monday in televised statements.

But Saleh said without reaching an agreement on how and when to implement the GCC deal , Yemenis will go to an all-out cvil war.

Two important and controversial issues faced the UN envoy since he arrived last week.

The ruling party wanted the GCC initiative to be signed simultaneously with its implementation mechanism while the opposition wanted President Saleh or his deputy to sign the GCC first and then its implementation mechanism signed in Riyadh later.

The ruling party wanted the leaders of the opposition to get back from outside Yemen to finalize the last details of the implementation mechanism of the GCC.

The secretary general of the socialist party, Yassin Saeed Noman, secretary general of the Islamist party, Abdul Wahab Al Ansi,and chairman of the national council, Mohammed Ba Sundwa are still mobilizing support outside Yemen since middle of October and they do not want to get back until the GCC is signed despite the American and European calls for them to get back.

The ruling party also wants guarantees From opposition or from international community to end protests as soon as the national government is formed according to the implementation mechanism of the GCC.

The opposition keep saying their protesters have the right to demonstrate and sit in regardless of any agreement between the parties.

Furthermore, there are three considerable groups who completely refuse the GCC deal as a solution for the Yemeni crisis.

In south, the southern separatist movement group refuses the GCC deal and describes it as a northern issue that has nothing to do with them.

The Shiite rebels of Al Houthi in the north,also refuse the GCC deal as something that excludes them and enhances the persecution from the sunni groups from which they have been complaining.

The GCC deal is believed to be in favor of the historic opponents of the Shiite Al Houthi group.

The sunni Islamist party, Islah and the defected general Ali Muhsen, who is very close to Islah and who led six wars against Al Houthi, are the historic opponents of Al Houthi group.

Al Houthi group is the second largest and influential group after Islah that dominates the Yemen main opposition coalition which includes Islamists, Socialists and Nasserites.

From March to this month, hundreds of people were killed and injured in fierce battles between Islah and Houthi in Al Jawf, Saada and Hajja provinces. Each group wants to control as much as possible of these provinces in the absence of the central government because of the current unrest.

On Monday November 14th, 2011, for instance, 10 people from both sides were killed after Al Houthi fighters arrested and killed a suicide bomber allegedly from Islah who tried to blow himself up in a big group of Al Houthi followers who were celebrating their sacred annual day of Al Ghafeer in the area of Matoon, in Al Jawf province, north east of Yemen.

The third group that refuses the GCC deal is Al Qaeda. This terrorist group denies both the opposition and the government and described them as the
"agents of Americans, the enemies of Muslims and Islam".

In the areas under their control as Taliban-Style Islamic Emirates in the south of the country, Al Qaeda whips, cuts hands, and executes as punishments for anyone who violates what they call Shariah law.

(((((

Challenges facing UN Envoy to Yemen to end crisis

2011-11-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

President Saleh to quit in 90 days after reaching agreement on how to implement GCC-deal

2011-11-14T23:59:00.000-08:00

Source: Xinhua, 15/11/2011

SANAA-Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday said he would leave office in 90 days after reaching an agreement on a scheduled operating mechanism for implementing the Gulf-brokered initiative for power transfer.

"I will step down in 90 days after reaching an agreement with the opposition on a scheduled operating mechanism for implementing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative and signing it," Saleh said in an interview with France's Arabic-language Channel 24 television late on Monday.

"I do not mind to leave in 30, or 60 or 90 days ... the most important is we have to reach an agreement on a scheduled mechanism for implementing the deal," Saleh said.

Saleh has backed out from signing the initiative for three times in the last minutes since the deal was brokered in April.

"The ruling party and the opposition have agreed on more than 80 percent of the initiative's terms," Saleh said, denying reports that "he has refused to sign it."

"In fact, we do not want a new Gadhafi in the region, as I'm aware that anyone who clings to power is mad," Saleh said.

Asked if there was pressure exercised on him to leave power, Saleh said: "Yes, the United States and the international community put a lot of pressure on me to leave office, but I got used to such scenarios."

Meanwhile, the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) accused Saleh of stalling the process of transferring power, in a statement posted on the opposition media.

Saleh has confronted 10-month-old protest calling for an end to his 33-year rule. The long-running political crisis triggered violence that killed thousands of people since late January, causing the collapse of security situation and the economic sector in the impoverished country.

The GCC deal, which was backed by the UN Security Resolution 2014, stipulates President Saleh to hand over power to his deputy Hadi and quit in 30 days in return for immunity from prosecution. Hadi would then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days.

3 French Aid Workers Freed In Yemen

2011-11-14T05:03:00.000-08:00

3 French Aid Workers Freed In Yemen

Source: AP, 14/11/2011

- Three French aid workers held hostage by al-Qaida militants in Yemen have been freed with the help of the sultan of Oman after nearly six months in captivity, the French president's office said Monday.

Kidnappers linked to al-Qaida's offshoot in the region had demanded a $12 million in exchange for the three, and had threatened to kill the hostages if ransom wasn't paid imminently, according to Yemeni officials.

A Yemeni mediator said the Omani government and a Yemeni businessman paid a ransom, though he gave no figure and the ransom couldn't immediately be confirmed.

The hostage ordeal came amid an uprising against the 30-year reign of President Ali Abdullah Saleh that has unraveled security in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country. Al-Qaida-linked militants have taken control of entire towns in the country's restive south.

The aid group Triangle Generation Humanitaire said the workers were in good health. But the circumstances of their release remained murky.

The senior Yemeni tribal mediator said Oman and Yemeni tribesmen negotiated the release, and that the hostages were handed over to mediators one by one. He said a helicopter carried the hostages from the southern Yemeni city of Shabwa — a hotbed of Islamic militants — to Oman late Sunday.

The mediator spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. He didn't give further details.

Authorities in Oman did not comment on the release or its government's role. Oman never made a public comment about its mediation role in freeing three U.S. hikers detained in Iran.

French authorities insist the government doesn't pay ransoms. French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office issued a statement announcing the release early Monday, but provided no details of what happened.

Sarkozy "warmly thanks the sultan of Oman and the Oman authorities for their decisive help, as well as all those who contributed to this happy outcome," the statement said, without elaborating.

The two women and one man from Triangle Generation Humanitaire were abducted May 28 in eastern Yemen's Hadramawt province, which is home to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

"We know they are in good physical shape," a director of the group, Patrick Verbruggen, told The Associated Press. "We are sharing a moment of happiness."

He said he had no details about how they were released, whether a ransom was paid, or when they would return to France.

The aid group, based in Lyon, France, pulled out its expatriate employees from Yemen after the kidnapping, though Yemeni employees remain. The group works on projects to improve water supplies and farming infrastructure.

Abdu al-Janadi, a Yemeni government spokesman, told reporters on Sunday the hostages were held by al-Qaida militants in Shabwa and that the abductors threatened to kill the hostages if the Yemeni government didn't pay a ransom by the end of the week.

Kidnappings are common in Yemen, where tribesmen use abductions to try to force concessions from the government, such as the release of fellow tribesmen in prison.

Yemeni government forces and allied tribesmen killed 10 militants in attacks around the country Sunday, security officials said. A visiting U.N. envoy met with Saleh to push for a solution to the country's political crisis.

___

Yemeni VP warns of "hunger revolution" if all sides fail to reach power transfer deal

2011-11-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

Source: 13/11/2011

SANAA- Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi warned on Saturday that a "hunger revolution" is looming in his impoverished country if all sides fail to finalize a UN-backed power transition deal to end long-running unrest.

Hadi made the warning in a meeting here with visiting UN envoy to Yemen Jamal bin Omar and ambassadors of the permanent member countries of the UN Security Council to Yemen, the state-run Saba news agency reported.

"We fear that a hunger revolution will ensue from the 10-month- long political impasse if the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative is not finalized soon as many civilians without affiliating with any political parties were the most affected in the various aspects of life," Hadi said.

"The remaining differences between the ruling party and the opposition still hamper the signing of the deal," he said, adding "85 percent of the differences were resolved."

The GCC deal, which was backed by the UN Security Resolution 2014, stipulates Saleh to sign it and hand power to his deputy Hadi and quit in 30 days in return for immunity from prosecution. Hadi would then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days.

The opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) signed the deal in May while Saleh backed out from signing it in the last minutes during three separate occasions.

The new development came three days after bin Omar arrived in Sanaa in a sixth attempt to follow up the implementation of the UN resolution adopted on Oct. 21 to call on Saleh to sign the initiative and end violence.

The upheaval in the country has left thousands of people killed and injured since the eruption of protest in late January to demand an end to Saleh's 33-year rule.

International solution for Yemen's crisis ignored by southern separatists who want only independence

2011-11-12T07:20:00.000-08:00

Hirak leader calls for beleaguered regime in Sana'a to accept south's self-determination demands

Source: The Guardian by Tom Finn in Aden, 12/11:2011

Leaders of a five-year secessionist movement in Yemen's restive south are threatening to overturn a 1990 unification deal and declare independence, amid growing frustration that their grievances are being overshadowed by the bloody power struggle raging in the country's northern capital Sana'a.

"We give the regime this ultimatum: either you acknowledge our legitimate demands to self-determination or you will soon find Yemen split once again into two countries," said General Nasser al-Taweel, a prominent leader of the Hirak, or southern secessionist movement.

Years of maltreatment and neglect at the hands of the Sana'a government had left many in Yemen's south querying the value of the 1990 merger between the then Marxist-led south and the tribal-dominated north.

Now, with President Ali Abdullah Saleh's armed forces battling renegade soldiers and tribal militias in Sana'a, the separatists are seizing the opportunity of a weakened central government to try to see through their claim to independence.

In the southern port city of Aden, a former British colony built in the dusty crevices of an extinct volcano, the Hirak, who for years bristled at the region's marginalisation under northern rule, have emerged from the shadows. Bus stops draped in the blue, red, and white flags of the former socialist republic of South Yemen and kitted out with amplifiers have been transformed into makeshift protest stages and podiums for the delivery of defiant "anti-unity" speeches.

In the suburbs, abandoned government buildings overlook alleys strewn with shattered paving slabs and heaps of smouldering rubbish, ominous reminders of the running street battles between separatist demonstrators and security forces that still haunt the city.

Even the hoarding showing the president outside the airport has not survived the Hirak's blitzkrieg. "Get out Ali, you dog, free the south!" is scrawled in thick red paint across the ruler's eyes.

Years of intimidation, floggings and midnight arrests by the regime's secret police had forced most of the Hirak's leadership abroad or underground. Now they move freely about the city,
organising weekly rallies and holding round-table discussions in coffee shops and restaurants.

"The regime is expending all its firepower on the north," said Mohammed Omar Ahmed Jubran, an elderly Hirak leader, addressing a group of youth activists in a ramshackle tea shop in downtown Aden. "We must seize this opportunity to regain our rights."

Though the south is home to only a fifth of Yemen's 22 million people, it generates the majority of the impoverished Arab country's wealth. Up to 80% of oil production comes from the south, along with its fisheries and Aden's port and refinery

But southerners claim they have lost out since unity both in terms of access to local power and jobs – the governors of all seven southern provinces are from the north – and as a result of systematic land grabs by well-connected northerners.

"How is that a northern sheikh can own a farm in the south that is bigger than Dubai, while an ordinary southern citizen cannot find 15 square metres to build a house on?" said Mohammed Al-Azaadi, a final year medical student at Aden university. "They have looted the foundations of our state. Now all we have left now is our blood."
Others lament the loss of the liberal culture that once pervaded Aden, blaming this on an infiltration of conservative Islam from the north.
Adeni women say they had better access to education and jobs before unity. Others voice bitterness over rigid dress codes imposed by Islamists who gained influence after the 1994 civil war.

"In the 80s women and men here reached greater equality than many parts of Europe," said Raqiya Homeidan, 66, an outspoken defender of women's rights and the first woman in the Arabian Peninsula to become a practising lawyer. "Now we've gone back a century." The advent of Egyptian-inspired protests in February saw flurries of co-operation between protesters in the north and south.
Both agreed to raise neither the Southern nor the Yemeni flag during demonstrations in order not to fracture opposition voices and undermine the immediate goal of regime change.
But euphoria has given way to disenchantment.

Many southerners are convinced that the Islamist-dominated opposition are more interested in its own political ambitions than addressing their popular grievances.

"They [the opposition] do not recognise our struggle as a political one. They speak about us as if we are an inconvenience not an independence movement," said Saleh Bin Farid Al-Awlaki, a prominent southern sheikh and wealthy businessman backing the secessionists.

But the south now has religious radicals of its own to contend with. Thousands of refugees have fled Islamist militants who have captured cities in the neighbouring province of Abyan.

Packed into the dingy classrooms of primary schools across Aden, they recall with terror the sight of the self-described "guardians of Islam" overrunning cities and plundering weapons factories after a swift retreat by army forces. But some accuse Saleh of deliberately fomenting conflict in Abyan in order to make the south seem unworthy of statehood.
The southern movement still lacks unity, strong leadership and international support, said Prof Abdul Faqih, a professor of politics at Sana'a University.

"But this problem is not about to go away. The southern issue is to Yemen what Palestine is to the Middle East: until it is addressed there can be no stability in the region."

Al Qaeda whips drug dealers in its "Emirates" in south of Yemen

2011-11-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

Source: AKI,11/11/2011

Sanaa- Al-Qaeda militants have publically whipped accused drug dealers in the southern Abyen province, warning people in the city of Jaar that they could suffer a similar punishment if they dabble in drugs, according to local media.

The insurgents Thursday afternoon warned onlookers of the whipping that a similar fate awaits them if they turn to drug use or dealing, according to newspaper Hayat Aden, citing eye witness accounts.

The suspected dealers were accused of selling hallucinogens named after figures like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh - all Arab leaders contested by violent protests in the so-called Arab Spring revolts.

Al-Qaeda has declared an Islamic emirate is southern Yemen's Abyen province where they control considerable territory and seek to impose Sharia, or Islamic law.

Yemeni ancient capital Sanaa damaged by violent unrest

2011-11-11T01:25:00.000-08:00

Sanaa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Source: Los Angeles Times , 11/11/2011

Much is at stake in the old city, its buildings covered in geometric designs of white gypsum and glimmers of stained glass, a place so striking that it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

By Zaid al-Alayaa and Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times
November 11, 2011 Reporting from Sana, Yemen, and Cairo

The tanks, mortars and firefights rumbling and crackling through the ancient city of Sana are endangering not only Yemen's future but also its magnificent architectural past of intricately decorated earthen houses and slender brick towers.

The old city, with its stealthy alleys and fortress walls, is one of the most striking visions in the Arab world, a bit of fairy tale in a harsh, despotically ruled land.

But once-peaceful protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh that have escalated to street battles involving tribes, government forces and mutinous soldiers are encroaching on the historic center, settled more than 2,500 years ago and named a World Heritage Site in 1986 by the United Nations.

"It is very sad that the people in charge are not taking care of such a precious treasure," said Ibrahim Dhawi, who owns a souvenir shop not far from 12 historic homes damaged by shelling in October.

"I'm really afraid that if the attacks against the old city continue, Sana might lose a lot and so will the Islamic and Arabian cultures."

Nine months of unrest have battered a country edging toward civil war as secessionists plot in the south and Al Qaeda militants assassinate security officials and seize control of towns. Most of the fighting thus far in Sana, the capital, has erupted outside the old city's stone and earthen walls, but gunfire, explosions and stray mortar rounds have been creeping closer.
"Sana is living history that Yemenis should take pride in and protect," said Abdullah Zaid Ayssa, head of the General Organization for Preservation of Historic Cities of Yemen.

"The old city of Sana is a source of income as a tourist site that needs to be protected and restored. It is very strange that people from the conflicting sides — regardless of who it might be — have attacked such an essential part of history, not just of Yemen but the world."

The enclave of about 66,000 people has endured invaders, wars, religious upheaval and droughts for millenniums. Sana occupied a prominent place in the emerging Islamic faith in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Its houses, towers and minarets are mixtures of packed earth and kiln-fired brick decorated with geometric designs colored with white gypsum and glimmers of stained glass.

From afar, the narrow, flat-top buildings appear like a delicate city in miniature. The last major renovation occurred during the Ottoman Empire.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization describes the old city with the mystique one might read in a travelogue from another era: "The ochre of the buildings blends into the bistre-colored earth of the nearby mountains.

Within the city, minarets pierce the skyline and spacious green bustans (gardens) are scattered between the densely packed houses, mosques, bath buildings and caravanserais."

But these days, modern weaponry and political intrigue are jeopardizing the capital as Saleh refuses to relinquish his 33-year rule amid international pressure and multiplying domestic enemies.

Years of poverty, new construction and failed government oversight also have marred the old city's aura by leaving historic buildings in disrepair.

"People who live here are of limited income and cannot help restore the houses," said preservationist Ayssa. "There is a lack of awareness. The old city is under threat."

UNESCO recently urged the Saleh government to better protect the old city's architectural character, expressing "deep concern" about the state of preservation.

The historic center contains 12,000 buildings, including more than 45 mosques, 42 gardens, 49 orchards, 16 baths and 48 markets, most notably the sprawling Salt Market that over the centuries sold copper, spices and slaves.

"People of the old city cannot restore the buildings themselves," said Qanaf Sharib, a neighborhood leader.

"They need help from the government, otherwise the city will lose its charm."
Hundreds of residents gathered last month at Friday prayers and called for the ouster of Saleh, mutinous soldiers and opposition figures.

The demonstrators, calling themselves the Silent Majority, shouted, "They all must go!"

The residents and shopkeepers demanded peace and an end to inflation and months of insecurity that have driven tourists away and ruined the economy.

"I'm afraid that the old city will become another battlefield," said Dhawi, the souvenir seller, who daily endures blackouts and barricades.

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

Special correspondent Al-Alayaa reported from Sana and Times staff writer Fleishman from Cairo.

UN envoy in Yemen in his sixth attempt to end the crisis

2011-11-10T05:24:00.000-08:00

By Nasser Arrabyee , 10/11/2011

Two important and controversial issues are facing the UN envoy Jamal Bin Omar who arrived in Sanaa Thursday, November 10,2011 to monitor the implementation of Security Council resolution 2014, which urged the conflicting parties in Yemen to end the 10-month political crisis.

The ruling party wants the GCC initiative to be signed simultaneously with its implementation mechanism while the opposition wants to sign the latter in Riyadh later.

The ruling party wants the leaders of the opposition to get back from outside Yemen to finalize the last details of the implementation mechanism of the GCC.

The secretary general of the socialist party, Yassin Saeed Noman, secretary general of the Islamist party, Abdul Wahab Al Ansi,and chairman of the national council, Mohammed Ba Sundwa are still mobilizing support outside Yemen since middle of October and they do not want to get back until the GCC is signed despite the American and European calls for them to get back.

The ruling party also wants guarantees From opposition to end protests as soon as the national government is formed according to the implementation mechanism of the GCC.

The opposition keep saying their protesters have the right to demonstrate and sit in regardless of any agreement between the parties.

After the UNSC 2014, the UN envoy Jamal Bin Omar hopes to end the Yemen crisis in his current round, the sixth since the beginning of the crisis earlier this year.

Bin Omar was supposed to arrive in Yemen at the end of October.

But he delayed the trip to November 10th, after senior officials left Yemen for medical check ups outside Yemen.

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was then supposed to authorize his deputy to sign a Gulf-brokered deal and implement all its steps until a new president is elected.

However, vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi left for United States for necessary medical check ups.

And so did the political advisor of President Saleh, Dr Abdul Kareem Al Eryani, who is the chief negotiator with the opposition forces about the GCC deal.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar,consequently, delayed his trip to Yemen after the vice President Mr Hadi had coordinated with him and told how long he would take for medical checks in US.

Both Mr Hadi and Mr Al Eryani are scheduled to return to Sanaa on November 4 and 3 respectively.

According to reliable sources in government and opposition, the UN envoy Bin Omar,will arrive on February 10 to attend the final consultations meeting with both sides before the GCC is signed by the vice President Mr Hadi.

Some of the opposition politicians confirmed Tuesday February 1st that they were informed by the US ambassador that Saleh had agreed to authorize his deputy to act for him until a new president is elected within three months maximum after the GCC deal is signed.

The authorization decree will stipulate that Saleh will remain president until a new president is elected and that the authorized deputy should not cancel him. This is a kind of guarantee.

Immediately, after the GCC deal is signed by Mr Hadi, and the implementation mechanism is approved by both sides , the UN Security Council would issue a resolution binding all conflicting parties to implement the mechanism step by step and the UN envoy Bin Omar would be monitoring all steps and performance of all parties.

After being authorized by President Saleh, vice president Mr Hadi,would entrust someone nominated by the opposition to form a national unity government from the opposition coalition and the ruling party.

The opposition-chaired government would form a military and security committee chaired by Mr Hadi, to control the army and security.

The son and three nephews of President Saleh will remain in their positions as important commanders in army and security until the end of the transitional period.

Then, the vice president would call for presidential elections within three month.

Mr Hadi himself would be the candidate of both the ruling party and the opposition as a man of national consensus.

Hadi would elected as a transitional president for two years during which all political and constitutional issues are supposed to be solved.

However, the situation on the ground remains tense and escalation continues. The protesters refuse the GCC and insist on the ouster president Saleh without conditions, despite the fact that more than 90 percent of them belong to the opposition parties who are involved in the GCC deal and negotiations with the ruling party.

The armed opposition tribesmen supported by defected troops are still in almost daily confrontations with the government forces inside the capital and other places.

))))In an online conference last week,
Nasser Arrabyee who writes for Yemen Observer, asked the US DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS TAMARA WITTES this question:

Political tyranny and corruption led to the current popular uprising in Yemen, but this uprising is now being exploited by traditional tribal and religious forces that may repeat the same political tyranny and corruption and maybe even worse. What would the U.S. government do to help Yemenis who want real democracy and not just changing the regime with a worse one?

And MS. WITTES answered: I think anytime there is an opening in society, there are going to be those who try and come in to work that change on behalf of their own interests. That’s politics. But the Yemeni people are determined, it seems to me, and they’ve demonstrated that determination through months and months of peaceful demonstrations, calling for political transition and calling for democracy in Yemen. To me, it’s the Yemeni people who will be the guarantors that in any political transition they will get the change they seek. The – it’s going to be Yemeni people who need to be able to hold their new leaders accountable for the promises that they’ve made.
Now in order to do that, you need good democratic rules, good institutions, and you need an environment in which rights are respected so that Yemeni citizens can speak freely about what’s going on and can hold their government to account. I think in all the work that the United States has tried to do diplomatically with others in the international community to promote a political transition in Yemen, we have held in mind these aspirations of the Yemeni people, but ultimately it will be Yemeni citizens who are going to have to enforce those expectations on their new leaders.
(((((

Yemen Nobel peace prize winner described as criminal and traitor

A fundamentalist cleric described the Yemeni noble peace prize winner as a " criminal, and traitor" calling her for repentance.

" Tawakul Karman was given the prize of Jews and Christians as a reward for her major treason of Islam, State and the People," said The Salafi cleric Mohammed Al Emam in a lengthy lecture on Ms Karman.

On October 7th, 2011, the Yemeni political activist Tawakul Karman was announced as a co-winner of the Nobel peace prize with two other Liberian women.

" This woman corrupted the women and men, and she and those like her need to repent to Allah Almighty before they die," said Al Emam in his lecture which was widely distributed in Yemen by followers this week.

Mohammed Al Emam, heads one of the largest and most famous and extremist Salafi schools in Yemen.

In addition to his School, located in town of Mabar, some 70 km south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, there are about 4,000 other similar Salafi schools scattered all over the poor country.

Gulf Salafi businessmen and other religious groups, especially from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, financially and logistically support these schools.

"This woman called for rebellion against Allah, and his Messenger and Hejab, and this a criminal call," said the Salafi cleric who has tens of thousands of followers in Yemen.

Al Emam also blasted Tawakul's party, the Islamist party, Islah and called its leaders to repent to Allah Almighty as well for dealing with the enemies, in a clear reference to Americans and Westerners in general.

U.N. envoy arrives in Yemen to make new push for power transfer

2011-11-10T00:45:00.000-08:00

Source: Reuters, 10/11/2011

SANAA-A UN envoy returns to Yemen on Thursday in a fresh bid to persuade Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power under a Gulf-brokered peace plan, following reports the president is inching towards accepting the proposal.

Officials said Jamal Benomar would meet Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has been mandated by Saleh to negotiate details of the handover deal with an alliance of opposition parties and sign it.

Benomar will also meet opposition leaders as part of the effort to implement the proposal brokered by the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council in April to end protests by Yemeni demanding that Saleh step down after 33 years in office.

"We are waiting for the leaders of the opposition and Benomar to arrive in Sanaa tomorrow (Thursday) to resume discussions on details of the Gulf initiative so it can be signed," the head of the information department at the ruling General People's Congress party, Tareq al-Shami, told Reuters.

Yemen has been rocked by months of protests that have put one of the poorest countries in the Arab world on the brink of civil war, a situation that could threaten the stability of neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter.

Opposition sources said that under the Gulf plan, Saleh would issue a decree handing over all powers to Hadi. The vice president would then sign the Gulf initiative and name an opposition politician to form a new national unity government that would start preparing for early elections.

If Benomar's mission is successful, the accord is expected to be signed in a ceremony in Saudi Arabia by mid-November, Yemeni officials said.

Benomar's trip comes after France said the European Union planned to discuss freezing Saleh's assets. The U.N. Security Council has unanimously condemned Yemen's crackdown on protesters and urged Saleh to sign the Gulf-brokered peace deal.

Saleh has backed away three times in the past from signing the Gulf plan, adding conditions including remaining president until a new head of state was elected, according to officials.

But Saleh has recently said he has dropped such conditions and intends to leave office once the peace plan is signed.

An opposition spokeswoman was sceptical.

"We cannot say there is real progress regarding any transfer of power until the Gulf initiative has been signed," Houriya Mashhour, of the opposition's National Council of the Revolution, told Reuters.

11 Al-Qaida-Linked Militants Killed in South Yemen

2011-11-08T02:12:00.000-08:00

Source: AP,08/11/2011

By GAMAL ABDUL-FATTAH Associated Press

Yemeni security forces killed six militants and injured many others Monday in fighting in a southern town seized by Islamists earlier this year, a security official said.

Monday's fighting brings the town of Zinjibar's 3-day death toll to 11. Forces killed five militants there Saturday.

Security has collapsed across the Arab world's poorest country during the 9-month popular uprising seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh. This has allowed al-Qaida linked militants to overrun a number of towns in the country's south. Yemeni security forces have been fighting for months to push them out, with frequent deaths and injuries on both sides.

The official said fighting in Zinjibar raged until the early hours of Monday. He said several members of the security forces were injured, but he did not say how many.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Yemen uprising binds women from many walks of life

2011-11-06T10:25:00.000-08:00

Source: AP,06/11/2011

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen- Early in Yemen's uprising, about 20 women with banners demanding equal rights marched into the heart of the capital, joining the thousands who were calling for the ouster of the president. They were greeted with cheers.

The women settled into a spot below the stage in the middle of Change Square. But as the days passed, "the women's section" became off-limits to men. A fence went up around it. Then straw mats were slung over the fence to conceal the women. Policed by bearded males, Yemen's traditional gender segregation had insinuated itself into the center of the revolt.

Women are fighting to keep demands for their rights at the center of Yemen's uprising and resist efforts to sideline them. The main goal of the protests is an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his regime, in place for nearly 33 years. But the liberals who launched the campaign nine months ago have always had broader hopes for blanket social change in a country where tribe and religion dominate, no matter who is in power.

Women's role in the uprising was recognized globally when Tawakkul Karman, a female icon of the protest movement, won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. But here in Sanaa, the reality is that every woman who joins the rallies has to rebel against the heavy pressure of social codes.

They also face the growing influence of Islamic hard-liners at Change Square, as activists have named the intersection where they have set up their protest camp. Islamic movements are richer and better organized than the secular side. They dominate Change Square's organizational committee and have attacked tents where men and women were gathered, seeking to undo the gender mixing that has been fostered by the revolution.

"They are systematically excluding us women," said Wameedh Shaker, who wears the hallmarks of liberal Yemeni womanhood — jeans, knee-length coat and a scarf covering her hair.

She remembers the exhilarating welcome for that first march.

"We felt like everything we can dream of will come true," said Shaker, a 31-year-old mother of one. "Coming into the square was like going to a paradise of respect and compassion. It was like the best men and women of Yemen gathered at one place."

About a fifth of those taking to the streets every day in protests are women — a level of participation that in itself represents a revolution for Yemen, where women are discouraged from inserting themselves into the public eye, much less the public debate.

In a poor nation of mountains, desert and few resources, women have had the poorest lot: female illiteracy runs at 70 percent, an average of eight women die every day because of poor health services or total lack of them. Men across much of the country marry girls as young as 10, with no legal minimum age for marriage. Only 7 percent of Yemeni women earn a wage, though in most cases they raise the children, tend the land, graze sheep and cattle, cook and clean. Protest, or even participation in public debate, is rare.

Somaya al-Qawas embodies the change.

She used to wear the most conservative of women's attire in Yemen, the khymar — an all-black tent that covers the body and head and hides the eyes behind a semi-translucent piece of cloth. It was what God wants, she believed.

In her early 20s, she took a small step toward moderation: She switched to the niqab, in which the veil has a slit exposing the eyes. And last month, at age 30, she marched into the makeshift hospital at the Change Square protest camp in a head scarf that exposed her face and a broad smile to the world.

"I told you I would, didn't I? Maybe you didn't expect it so soon," the mother of two said. "Am I the same person still? Yes. But some look at me as if I have become morally loose."

It was a dramatic leap in a personal journey of disillusionment with the ultraconservative version of Islam her family ascribes to. Her sisters were married at ages 11, 13, 14 and 16. She was the rebel: She waited until she was 23.

She pushed the strict confines of her marriage arrangements. She spoke to her husband only twice before their wedding — both times by phone after they were engaged. In their second call, she nearly broke up with him, angry because he too easily bowed to her family's warnings not to phone her.

She joined the revolution, and the revolution accelerated the change in her.

Her sisters, she said, "don't oppose what I am doing at Change Square, but they are clearly dismayed by it." She writes for an online newspaper and occasionally does live commentary for a private, pro-revolution TV station.

She has also grown away from Islah, the Islamist group that is Yemen's largest party and was always her political compass. She says the party instilled her principles in her, for which she's grateful, but "our revolution is broader than just one ideology. I can no longer exclude anyone who has different beliefs."

She also wants Islah to explain why it was a key supporter of the regime for so long, even if now it has latched on to the protests.

Al-Qawas says her businessman husband, Hesham al-Hameiri, backed her decision to join the protests. But Yemeni men in general are her adversary. "The next revolution in Yemen is a revolution against men's oppression of women," she says.

If al-Qawas came to women's empowerment from the outside, Hooria Mashhour fought for it from within Saleh's government through the state-run National Committee for Women.

Mashhour knew the organization existed mainly as a ruling party tool to bring out the women's vote, but she believed change had to come through the system. The widow of a top security official, she has a comfortable lifestyle in a luxury high-rise apartment in Sanaa.

The government's turn to violence to crush the revolution was too much. In March, at age 56, she quit the organization and started giving speeches and workshops at Change Square.

Now she works with an independent women's group focused on two demands: setting a minimum marriage age of 17 and a 30-percent quota for women in parliament.

In past upheaval, she says, women's rights took a back seat to other nationalist goals, like ending British colonial rule and feudal monarchy in the 1960s and unification of the two separate countries of North and South Yemen in 1990.

Now, she insists women's time has come. The post-revolutionary state, she says, "will have to include women in numbers that mirror the magnitude of their role in the revolution."

Jihad al-Jafri grew up in the once-independent south, where a socialist government tried to instill a more secular, less tribal society.

When she moved to Sanaa for college, she had to come to terms with its much more conservative attitudes. Here, she says, women are viewed either as sex objects to be covered up in the street or slaves at home.

Now married and settled in the capital, the 41-year-old psychiatrist has learned to adapt. She wears the niqab, for example, though she insists it's by choice, not by pressure.

"As women in the south, we went out to socialize only after sundown. But in Sanaa, women are home by sundown," she said.

Saleh's regime sought to reverse liberalization in the south, sending militant clerics to preach there, introducing a less woman-friendly family law and promoting a stricter dress code.

For al-Jafri, the uprising is a chance to roll back those changes.

She and her husband, a physician, have both been suspended from their government jobs for joining the protests. Piece by piece, al-Jafri sells off her dowry of gold jewelry so the family can eat and pay rent.

During a protest in April, al-Jafri volunteered to be a human shield for male protesters when security forces opened fire with live ammunition.

"I ran to the area where the protesters were targeted hoping that my presence there as a woman would stop the firing," she recalled.

The men noticed, she says, and respected what she did. "I can walk alone at Change Square at 3 in the morning and no one will bother me, not one bit."

Still she knows there's a long way to go.

"It will take 40 years to create a clean society in Yemen," she said. "There may well be other revolutions to strike roots for change and build a new Yemen, really new."

Yemen's ruling party urges opposition leaders abroad to return for power-transfer dialogue

2011-11-05T05:10:00.000-07:00

Source: Xinhua , 05/11/2011

SANAA- Yemen's ruling party on Friday urged the opposition leaders, who have been touring Arab countries for two weeks to seek support, to return home for resuming power- transfer dialogue.

"Today we call on leaders of the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties' (JMP) to return to Sanaa to resume the dialogue of power transfer based on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2014, " the ruling party General People's Congress (GPC) said in a statement posted on its website.

The European Union ambassador to Yemen Michele Cervone d'Urso told the Yemeni state Saba news agency on Tuesday that Ali Abdullah Saleh has made a positive step to hand power to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

"We hope that Eidal-Adha (Muslim holiday) will be an occasion to announce that Yemen has moved towards a new stage," d'Urso said, adding that "an agreement will be reached soon with the opposition. "

An official of the GPC said Saleh "finally agreed to move ahead in signing the GCC initiative to hand power to Hadi."

"But Saleh stipulates that he remains in office as honorary president until new president is elected, which is to be held in weeks after he signs the deal," the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The GCC initiative, which was brokered in April, stipulated Saleh to quit in 30 days and hand over power to Hadi, who would then form an opposition-led national government and arrange presidential elections in 60 days. Saleh has backed out of signing the deal three times in the last minute.

The impoverished Arab country has been rattled by almost daily protest since late January to call for an end to the 33-year rule of Saleh.

Pro-and-anti government rallies by thousands of demonstrators continued on Friday in the capital Sanaa, Taiz and some other major provinces to repeat their demands for-and-against Saleh.

In response, spokeswoman of the opposition National Council, Houria Mash'hour, described Saleh's move as "a good progress."

"The JMP's leaders are now committed to the appointments with leaders of some Gulf countries and they will come back to Sanaa simultaneously with the return of the UN envoy to Yemen Jamal bin Omar, who is coordinating the power-transfer deal between the opposition and Saleh's ruling party," she told Xinhua.

"We have learned that bin Omar will arrive in Sanaa on Nov. 11 to follow up the implementation of the UN resolution," Mash'hour added.

Yemenis determined to have real democracy despite non-democratic attempts of traditional forces

2011-11-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

04/11/2011

In an online conference last week,
Nasser Arrabyee asked the US DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS TAMARA WITTES this question:

Political tyranny and corruption led to the current popular uprising in Yemen, but this uprising is now being exploited by traditional tribal and religious forces that may repeat the same political tyranny and corruption and maybe even worse. What would the U.S. government do to help Yemenis who want real democracy and not just changing the regime with a worse one?

And MS. WITTES answered: I think anytime there is an opening in society, there are going to be those who try and come in to work that change on behalf of their own interests. That’s politics. But the Yemeni people are determined, it seems to me, and they’ve demonstrated that determination through months and months of peaceful demonstrations, calling for political transition and calling for democracy in Yemen. To me, it’s the Yemeni people who will be the guarantors that in any political transition they will get the change they seek. The – it’s going to be Yemeni people who need to be able to hold their new leaders accountable for the promises that they’ve made.
Now in order to do that, you need good democratic rules, good institutions, and you need an environment in which rights are respected so that Yemeni citizens can speak freely about what’s going on and can hold their government to account. I think in all the work that the United States has tried to do diplomatically with others in the international community to promote a political transition in Yemen, we have held in mind these aspirations of the Yemeni people, but ultimately it will be Yemeni citizens who are going to have to enforce those expectations on their new leaders.

The whole transcript is:

STATE DEPARTMENT LIVE
WITH DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR NEAR EASTERN AFFAIRS TAMARA WITTES
November 1, 2011
MS. JENSEN: Good afternoon. Welcome to State Department Live, the State Department’s interactive online video platform for engaging international media. I’d like to welcome our participants from all over the world. Today we’ll be speaking with Tamara Wittes, our deputy assistant secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, and we’ll be discussing the Arab Spring and the uprisings in the Middle East.
I would like to take this opportunity to tell you, you are welcome to start asking your questions in the lower left-hand portion of your screen. And if you would like to continue this conversation after today’s program, you can follow us on Twitter at @state, @USAbilAraby, @USAenFrancais, @USAdarFarsi, and @USMEPI. And with that, I will turn it over to Tamara Wittes. Thank you for joining us today.
MS. WITTES: Thank you so much. This is such a great opportunity for me to engage directly with all of you out in the region, to hear your questions, and to be able to respond directly and have a bit of a conversation. So even though I don’t get to travel as frequently as I might like out to the Arab world, it’s a great chance for us to interact virtually. I want to thank you very much for joining us.
We are here after a really historic week in what has been an incredibly historic year in the Middle East with the declaration of the liberation in Libya and the tremendous success of the Arab Spring’s first free, democratic elections in Tunisia a week ago Sunday. There is a long road for these countries in transition as they continue to move toward democracy. We’re committed to standing with them as they move down that road and to really ensuring that what’s at the heart of these events – the demands of citizens for dignity, for opportunity, for freedom – are at the heart of our response as well and to be guided by them.
So with that, let me open it up, and I look forward to your questions.
MS. JENSEN: Our first question comes from the Kuwait Times: I think there is a need for any new powers to be educated on how to reserve all the achievements and try to implement democratic polities. The question here is how to do so and how to help new powers – how to help new power to be democratic and reserve human rights.
MS. WITTES: This is a fantastic point, and thank you for bringing it up. As I think the Kuwaiti experience demonstrates, where you’ve had a parliamentary system for a number of years now and very open debate inside Kuwait, but it doesn’t come automatically. The skills inherent to democratic politics are something that everyone needs to learn and every society is constantly seeking to perfect. Even here in the United States, we’re constantly looking at our democratic system and what improvements we need to make to ensure that it really fulfills what citizens are looking for. So I think that this is something every democratic society faces.
We try to support democratic growth in the countries in the Middle East that are in transition, as we do around the world in a variety of ways. But I think that one of the most important ways that we can do that is by bringing those newly emerging democracies together with other democratic societies, whether they’re from Europe, the Western Hemisphere, Southeast Asia. The community of democracies is very diverse, and every democracy has its own experiences to offer.
So the Polish Government, for example, invited Tunisians and Egyptians and Libyans to come and observe their recent parliamentary elections. And facilitating those kinds of connections, I think is one of the ways that we can help cultivate quality democracy globally.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from Mohamed Al-Bishi (ph): What’s your comment on the analysis which says U.S. intelligence failed to anticipate and track the Arab Spring?
MS. WITTES: Speaking as somebody who’s studied the region for my whole career, I think that many of us who have spent time in the region and have followed the politics of the Arab world understood that there were some deep underlying developments in the region that were creating pressures for change. And those include the demography, the fact that more than half the Arab world are young people under the age of 30; the developments in economics or, to be frank, the stagnation and concerns about corruption in many places; and then changes also in the information environment, the media environment, the fact that people had more access to information about what was going on in other countries so that they could compare their situations to others and really look at what it was they wanted to achieve.
All of these changes have been building for years, for a decade or more. And Secretary Clinton, in fact, made note of these changes just under a year ago, last January, before Ben Ali left Tunisia, before what became known as the Arab Spring really got underway. She said to Arab leaders gathered in Doha at the G-8 BMENA Forum for the Future that they needed to respond to the aspirations of their own citizens for change, and without that they would not be able to build strong foundations for their societies and for the region into the future.
So I think that these trends have been there for a lot of people to see, and certainly the debate on democratic reform in the region has been ongoing for some time. That, to me, says that the events of this year, dramatic as they are, have very deep causes. And that also means that the pressures for change we see are not going away anytime soon. And even if it takes some time for these events to play out, one way or another, I think we see these pressures evident in every society.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from Nasser Arabi (ph) from Ahram Weekly in Yemen: Political tyranny and corruption led to the current popular uprising in Yemen, but this uprising is now being exploited by traditional tribal and religious forces that may repeat the same political tyranny and corruption and maybe even worse. What would the U.S. government do to help Yemenis who want real democracy and not just changing the regime with a worse one?
MS. WITTES: I think anytime there is an opening in society, there are going to be those who try and come in to work that change on behalf of their own interests. That’s politics. But the Yemeni people are determined, it seems to me, and they’ve demonstrated that determination through months and months of peaceful demonstrations, calling for political transition and calling for democracy in Yemen. To me, it’s the Yemeni people who will be the guarantors that in any political transition they will get the change they seek. The – it’s going to be Yemeni people who need to be able to hold their new leaders accountable for the promises that they’ve made.
Now in order to do that, you need good democratic rules, good institutions, and you need an environment in which rights are respected so that Yemeni citizens can speak freely about what’s going on and can hold their government to account. I think in all the work that the United States has tried to do diplomatically with others in the international community to promote a political transition in Yemen, we have held in mind these aspirations of the Yemeni people, but ultimately it will be Yemeni citizens who are going to have to enforce those expectations on their new leaders.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes Abusheik Bayav (ph) from Muscat Daily: The United States has cut off funding from UNESCO after the UN agency admitted Palestine as a full member. Why is the U.S. not adhering to the principles of democracy when an overwhelming number of nations have voted in favor of the Palestinian membership?
MS. WITTES: Thank you for that question. I think it’s very important to understand that the United States, along with a very wide majority in the international community and along with countries in the region and Israelis and Palestinians, all of us agree on the core goal, which is a two-state solution where Israel and Palestine live side by side in dignity and sovereignty and peace. The question is how do we get to that goal?
It’s been our view that trying to achieve symbolic gains in international institutions is not going to get Palestinians any closer to their goal of sovereignty and statehood. This is a symbolic move at UNESCO. It doesn’t make a difference to the lives of any Palestinians on the ground. What we’ve been focused on in our own work has been bringing the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, where they can settle the remaining issues between them and achieve that negotiated two-state solution that is the only path to lasting stability and peace for both peoples, the peace that they both so richly deserve.
So the vote at UNESCO yesterday, in our view, was unfortunate and a diversion in many ways from the real work that need to get done at the negotiating table.
MS. JENSEN: This is another one from Abusheik (ph): Many nations, including the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – have accused NATO of exceeding the UN mandate in Libya. Subsequently, the BRICS have also blocked the UN resolution against Syria, which was being strongly pushed by the U.S. and its Western allies. What do you think a substantial part of the world – why do you think a substantial part of the world do not agree with the West on its policies in the Middle East?
MS. WITTES: I would look at the Libya situation in its specific context. I think what you had there was an uprising that began peacefully, that was met with intense violence from Qadhafi’s government and, faced with that brutality, began to respond to defend the citizens of Libya. Those who were engaged in that uprising asked for international protection to defend their own citizens. The Arab League voted for international intervention to protect civilians, and then the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for measures by the international community to protect civilians.
The NATO mission was restricted to that mission and that goal. That’s what it was about. It was about preventing Qadhafi and his military forces from carrying out what surely would have been massacres against their own citizens. I believe NATO succeeded in that mission, and I believe the Libyan people on the ground succeeded in liberating their own country with the support and protection provided by that NATO mission. That is a set of policies that I believe had very wide support in the international community, and you see today the wide number of countries who are welcoming the emergence of a new, free Libya and working to support it as it moves toward democracy.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from Sami al-Duwani (ph) from KUNA Kuwait: What role do you expect from surrounding regional countries like Kuwait in organizations like the Gulf Cooperation Council in the time to come?
MS. WITTES: Great question from Kuwait. In fact, I think Kuwait has a special role to play this year in working together with its brother countries all around the region, both at the level of government and at the level of civil society to talk about the Arab Spring, to talk about these demands for change, and how governments can respond.
Why does Kuwait have a special role? Because this year Kuwait will be hosting the Forum for the Future, which is an annual meeting of the G-8 governments and the governments from the region, along with civil society organizations from all across the Middle East. It’s an annual opportunity for government and citizens to dialogue together about the need for reform, about setting priorities, and about how to advance the process together, working as partners.
So I’m delighted that Kuwait will be hosting that meeting. We look forward to participating, and I hope to see you there in a few weeks.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from Abusheik (ph) again: In Tunisia, the polls have put the hardline Ennahada in a position of power. Egypt has been marred by sectarian and religious violence. Do you think that there’s a danger of hardline political groups with extremist views benefitting in the ensuing chaos in the nations facing the so-called Arab Spring?
MS. WITTES: I think that’s a very important question to ask. There’s no doubt that political transitions are uncertain, and we have seen at previous periods of history that revolutions that began with great promise, like the Iranian revolution for example, were hijacked by those with an extreme agenda, who then pushed others out of the political sphere and began trampling on democratic rights and values. All of us who care about the fate of the region and the fate of these new democracies need to pay attention and do what we can to try and ensure that the aspirations of citizens are respected in the way these transitions move forward.
What does that mean? That means that the political marketplace needs to be open. People should be able to express their ideas freely, but if you want to be an actor in democratic politics, there are some core principles to which you must adhere. You have to commit yourself to not using violence to achieve your political goals, to working peacefully through the system. You have to commit yourself to the democratic rules of the game, whether you win or whether you lose. And you have to commit yourself to treating all citizens of the state equally – equality under the law, a core principle of democracy. So I think these are essential elements for any new political actor who wants to participate in the democratic system.
Those are certainly the ideas that we bring into our conversations with all of these new political actors, and we ask: What is your stance on these issues? How can you demonstrate to the citizens that you’re really going to fulfill their aspirations for democracy? Ultimately, it’s going to be the citizens of these states who are going to shape their own future and decide whether these new political parties win or lose at the polls. But the election itself is not the end of democratic development. In many ways, it’s just the beginning. And it’s how these political actors play their roles in accordance with democratic principles that will ultimately demonstrate whether they can play a constructive role in democratic politics.
MS. JENSEN: I’d just like to remind you that if you would like to continue this conversation after today’s program, you can do so on Twitter, @USMEPI, which is the Middle East Partnership Initiative, or you can do it on USAdarFarsi or USAenFrancais or USAbilAraby.
Our next question comes from Mustafa Al Arab from CNN Arabic: The Iranian foreign minister is planning for a visit soon to Libya and Tunisia, and Tehran is trying to rebuild relationships with Egypt while the U.S. is pulling troops from Iraq. How do you see the new balance of power in the region, specifically if the moderate Islamic parties in these Arab Spring countries decided to build relationships with Tehran?
MR. WITTES: In many ways, I think that the young people who drove the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and Libya have demonstrated more clearly than I think anything else could the hypocrisy behind Iranian policy in the region. They have said that they’re not waiting for anyone else to give them their turn to participate; they’re demanding their right to participate. They’re demanding rights for themselves and their fellow citizens. And they’re also rejecting the notion that the only way to achieve change in the region is through some unending confrontation with outside powers.
They’re doing it for themselves. They’re taking ownership over their own future. To me, that’s a tremendously positive development. And it’s also, in my view, I think, a real response to others in the region who preach confrontation as the only path to change. So I think that Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans are taking control of their own fate. They’re going to make their own decisions about the relationships they want to have in the region.
I think that Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans also have clear priorities that relate to their own situation at home. They want equal opportunities in the economy, they want dignity and rights from their government, they want a government that’s accountable to them and that operates transparently. And they want peace and stability in their neighborhood so that they can benefit economically and have the future that they desire. Iran’s role in the region has not advanced those goals. Iran has been a destabilizing actor and an actor that is provoking tension rather than stability and opportunity. So to me, I think that these citizens and these countries are going to have to look at where their interests lie.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from the Middle East post in Palestine. Bear with me. It’s long: The Quartet attempts to bring both the Israelis and the Palestinians to the negotiation table, and it failed until this moment. The current Israeli leadership threatens to build hundreds of new settlements in the West Bank as a reaction to the UNESCO recognition of Palestine, while the Palestinian leadership is determined to continue its effort in diplomatic channels to gain a global recognition of the Palestinian state. Palestinians see, in their efforts, a part of the Arab Spring. The U.S. refuses the UN bid for a Palestinian state and is not succeeding in bringing the two sides to the negotiation table again. What would be the American reaction and policy, especially that the Palestinians stated today that they will apply for other tens of UN organizations to recognize them while Israel is threatening to cut relations with the PA?
MR. WITTES: Okay. Well, I think you’ve captured a lot of the recent developments in your question, and so let me say a couple of things in response. Number one, as you noted, we are very focused – the United States – working with the Quartet on trying to get the two parties back to direct talks. But we’re not only doing that in the interim. We’re engaged in discussions separately with the Israelis and with the Palestinians on a couple of core issues – on security and on land, and both parties are bringing their proposals to us, and we’re sharing information back and forth. So we’re engaged in indirect negotiations.
We think that’s very important to try and advance this process, because it’s only through working through these very difficult, very painful issues that Palestinians will get the self-determination that they are seeking and that they deserve. And you noted that in that sense, the Palestinian quest for statehood is a part of the Arab Spring because it’s about self-determination, and I think you’re right. President Obama spoke to this in May when he laid out his principles for a durable peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and recognizing that Palestinian self-determination is a part of our regional picture, and that Palestinians need to get to statehood.
I think it’s important, though, to recognize that these moves at the United Nations are not, in fact, bringing Palestinians closer to the day when they can exercise real self-determination and sovereignty over their lives in an independent state. These are symbolic moves. They do not change the situation on the ground. They do not alter the equation between the parties. What’s needed to do that are negotiations, and that’s why our efforts are focused on that goal.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from Jane’s Defense Weekly: Policy-wise, is it possible to extract a model for NATO’s future operations based on its missions in Libya, where only a few allies carried out the bulk of the burden? Or does the current financial crisis and defense spending trend of most of the 28 allies suggest that NATO is fated to patch together only in ad hoc groups of allies well into the future?
MR. WITTES: Wow. That’s a very important strategic question and I am not a NATO expert. But what I’ll say is that NATO is an alliance of strong partners, each of whom brings their own unique resources to the table. I think that in a number of NATO operations, not only in Libya but elsewhere in the world, you’ve seen significant sharing of burdens among the various allies in different ways, dependent on the situation and the mission at hand.
So I think that NATO really is a group of peers who each bring their own unique capacities to bear, and we take it case by case.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question is: What is the U.S. involvement in countries of the Arab Spring presently? Is the U.S. funding political parties or organizations? And how does the U.S. decide what groups or projects to fund?
MS. WITTES: Thank you so much for asking this question. I think it’s important that I make something very clear. It is not U.S. policy to fund any political party, not in the Arab world and not anywhere else in the world. In fact, it’s against our policy to fund political parties.
What we do in our efforts to support democratic development are to provide training and assistance on a nonpartisan basis to political parties, political candidates, campaign managers, who want to learn how they can be more effective in the electoral process. But we provide that assistance in a nonpartisan way through NGOs that open their programs to all parties that reject violence and embrace the democratic process. That’s our policy. We are very interested in promoting a quality democratic process. We are not pushing for a particular outcome.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from Hallah Mohamed (ph) from Iraq: Do you know – or do not you think the United States that the security situation in Iraq is not suitable for Iraq not able to stay alone now? Did you get the gist of that?
MS. WITTES: As I understand the question, you’re asking about the security situation in Iraq and the possible consequences of our decision to withdraw our forces by the end of the year in line with the agreement that we have with the Iraqi Government and the discussions that we’ve been having with them.
In that decision, as we’ve said from the outset, we are guided and we will be guided by the wishes of the Iraqi Government and the Iraqi people. We made a commitment in that agreement with the Iraqi Government a few years ago to withdraw our forces by the end of this year, and we are fulfilling the terms of that agreement.
That does not mean that Iraq is on its own. Iraq has friends and partners around the region and around the world, and the United States will remain a close friend of Iraq and an important partner, I hope, with the Iraqi people and the Iraqi Government in continuing to help Iraq build its democracy, to help Iraq play the important role in the region that we know it will continue to play, and to develop all the institutions it needs to bring security and services to its citizens.
So we will be there, but we will not be there with military boots on the ground. We’re going to have a civilian partnership with Iraq. And to us, this is a very exciting opportunity to have a relationship with Iraq, with the government and the people, much more like the relationship we have with other governments around the region and around the world.
MS. JENSEN: We have time for two more questions. The next one is: What is the U.S. doing about countries where the regimes are not listening to the demands of significant numbers of people, namely Syria?
MS. WITTES: I think that all of us watching what’s been taking place in Syria in these months since March are tremendously impressed and inspired by the determination of the Syrian citizens maintaining their demands for freedom in the face of incredible brutality at the hands of their own government. It is incredibly distressing. It’s also dangerous. The actions of the Syrian Government in responding to its citizens legitimate demands with violence instead of with change, these actions are destabilizing not only for Syria but for its neighbors and for the region.
And that’s why we think it is absolutely imperative that the international community as a whole continue to work together to increase pressure on the Syrian Government to make clear to Bashar Asad the negative consequences of the choices he’s making, and hopefully to turn them in a different direction.
We know that the for the Syrian people, there is no going back. And we know that even if Bashar Asad is working to resist change, change is coming to Syria. We would like to see that change come as peacefully as possible, and we would like to see the Syrian people have the opportunity to exercise their voice and to build the democratic future that they are demanding.
MS. JENSEN: All right, this is our last question: What important things would you like to see countries doing once they have ridded themselves of the dictator and want to start a democracy?
MS. WITTES: I think that the most important thing for citizens in these emerging democracies is that they have taken ownership over their future and they’re not letting anyone else make decisions for them. And so this is exciting and it’s also what needs to be preserved. The Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans, the citizens themselves, are the ones who are making decisions about their future.
In Tunisia, the elections last week, I think demonstrated this wonderfully, that upwards of 70 percent of Tunisians went out to vote, in some places more than 90 percent, to choose the representatives who will draft their new constitution for a democratic Tunisia. The process still has a long way to go, and so working through Tunisia’s new constituent assembly, working through the new interim government, and also working through civil society organizations, Tunisian citizens need to stay involved. They need to stay vigilant. They need to maintain that sense of ownership over their own democracy so that they can shape the process as it goes forward.
We seek to support them in doing that. We’re providing support to Tunisian civil society. We’re providing technical assistance to the new Tunisian constituent assembly, and we are looking forward to working with the government and the people going forward. But it’s going to be the citizens themselves who determine their future.
MS. JENSEN: All right. Well, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today, and thank you for joining us on State Department Live. I know there were a lot of additional questions in the queue, and we are going to work really hard to making sure that we get an answer to all of those questions.
I also want to let you know that this is officially the very last State Department Live. We are re-branding and coming back as Live@State, so please stay tuned. We will have a fancier set and a new name, so please stay tuned. And if you would like to continue this conversation on the Arab Spring, please make sure you can follow us on Twitter at @state – that’s the main State Department Twitter feed – or @USAbilAraby, USAdarFarsi, USAenFrancais. And if you would like to follow the Middle East Partnership Initiative, you can do so on @USMEPI. Thanks for joining us today.
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Ancient City Anchors Political Standoff in Yemen

2011-11-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

Source, New York Times, By LAURA
Kasinof, 03/11/2011

TAIZ, Yemen — This ancient city among the steep cliffs of central Yemen, once known as the commercial and intellectual hub of this south Arabian nation, has emerged as the violent center of a long political standoff between a president who refuses to step down and demonstrators who want him out.

The government has attacked here with a ferocity not seen in Sana, the capital; on Wednesday, government forces shelled residential neighborhoods after local fighters took over a ministry building. Seven civilians were killed, including two children.

But this is not a one-way battle, not in Taiz, where the tribes have united, organized and fought back. Five soldiers were killed, too, on Wednesday.

For all of the attention focused on the capital, where demonstrators have camped out for 10 months in the streets and many have died in sporadic fighting, this is the front line, or at least that is the way President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his allies seem to see it. They fear that Taiz could become the equivalent of Benghazi in Libya, a makeshift capital for the opposition, where forces seeking to oust the president can coalesce, organize and recruit supporters.

“The opposition parties thought that if Taiz falls, they could make it into a Benghazi, and use that to put pressure on the president,” Hamoud al-Sofi, the governor of Taiz Province, said from his home, where he was protected by an armed guard. “This isn’t a conflict between protesters and the government. It is a war, from all senses of the meaning. Each party has its own weapons.”

Buildings throughout the city are pockmarked from bullets and explosions. The shops are closed, apartments are abandoned and graffiti denouncing President Saleh is everywhere. The intense fighting in Taiz eclipsed the protests, with only about 1,000 of the most hard-core, but unarmed, demonstrators braving the violence to stay on the streets. Government forces have stepped up their operations in recent weeks, killing at least 30 civilians in October.

“For the government, Taiz is an important governorate,” said Shawqi Hail Saeed, a prominent resident and businessman. “They think it is a very serious case. They have to make sure Taiz is secured, that it doesn’t fall.”

Taiz is a city apart in Yemen, where it long ago earned a reputation as a place where law, order and civil society flourished. Residents took pride in creating a more peaceful environment than existed in much of Yemen, a nation where men routinely carry around weapons and wear a large dagger on their belt as part of their daily dress, much like a tie in the West. In Taiz, both customs were frequently rejected.

“In Taiz, we had reached a stage when you didn’t see people carrying even a dagger,” Mr. Saeed said. Now its common to see a man on the streets of Taiz with a Kalashnikov on his back.

But there is another fact about Taiz, one Mr. Saleh knows well, having once been the regional military commander. Taiz is the birthplace of political opposition in Yemen. Residents of Taiz were instrumental in establishing the largest Islamic party, and the Socialist Party was founded in the city. With civil society came civic involvement.

When anti-Saleh protests broke out in Yemen, setting off the protracted political standoff, they moved quickly to Taiz. But as has often happened in Taiz, the city carried the idea forward; where demonstrators marched in Sana, they camped out in Taiz. The government immediately saw the threat and sent its forces to Taiz.

Unlike in Sana, where officials had plainclothes gunmen fire at unarmed protesters, in Taiz the government allowed uniformed forces to shoot at and kill demonstrators. Those same forces also beat women who were demonstrating, something that had not happened in other cities.

In late May, government forces set fire to a demonstrators’ tent camp in Taiz. At the same time, soldiers sacked a nearby hospital treating protesters. By the end of the day, at least 12 people had been killed, according to a local doctor.

At that point, tribal leaders from the surrounding countryside gathered at the residence of Sheik Hamoud Saeed al-Mikhlafi and decided to fight back. They sent armed fighters to attack government buildings, military installments and soldiers.

“Taiz has always been ‘Yes, sir’ to the authorities,” said Sheik Mikhlafi, who has become the leader of the armed rebellion in the city. “All of Taiz went out on the streets. They stopped being obedient and they revolted.”

He said that if he chose to, he could mobilize thousands of tribal fighters in two days, but that so far he had decided to hold back. “People with the government are only fighting for the salary,” he said. “We are fighting for belief.”

Sheik Mikhlafi is a member of the Islamist party and is a cousin of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman, who was one of the first people calling for Mr. Saleh’s downfall.

“I respect Sheik Hamoud because he brought us back our dignity,” said Abdul Rahman al-Alimi, an employee of an optical shop in Taiz. “I don’t know him personally, all I know about him is that he respects us,” he added.

Taiz’s population is often described as the most educated in Yemen, but the people here complain that they are treated as second-class citizens, and that the culture of Yemen has been dominated by the northern tribes since Mr. Saleh came to power.

Not that far away from Mr. Alimi’s home is a civilian apartment badly damaged last week by artillery fire. The owner of the house is in Saudi Arabia with his family, and his brother, Mansour Abdul Wahab, was trying to manage the situation. “I’ll go to the government and ask for repayment for this,” he said standing just outside the rubble of what once was a bedroom for his brother’s three children.

“When will that be? After one year?” asked Omar al-Sarmi, who lives in the house next door, as he stood next to Mr. Abdul Wahab. “We don’t want money, we want to be safe.”

Yemenis fear that anger will linger, even if there is a political solution and even if peace returns to Taiz and the weapons are once more stored away.

“Even if the change comes, and I am sure the change will come, it will take a longer time because of the amount of suffering we have had as a people in Yemen, and in Taiz particularly,” Mr. Saeed said.

“The number of houses and shops that have been attacked, or people who have been killed, it will take a long time for the mentality of people to change in the future to forget what has happened,” he said.

US targets two more top Al Qaeda operatives in Yemen, after killing Al Awlaki

2011-11-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

Source: WSJ,02/11/2011

By SIOBHAN GORMAN

WASHINGTON—U.S. counterterrorism officials have set their sights on the top bomb maker of al Qaeda's Yemeni branch, whom the officials have identified as a central figure in at least three new potential terror threats involving Americans or American targets.

Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri, the bomb maker, poses a lower-profile but more lethal threat to the U.S. than the group's prominent propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki, whom the Central Intelligence Agency killed last month, U.S. and international counterterrorism officials said.

Mr. Asiri is one of the top Qaeda operatives in the crosshairs of the CIA's new drone program in Yemen, which the agency inaugurated with the Sept. 30 strike on Anwar al-Awlaki, who was the charismatic, American-born face of al Qaeda's Yemen branch, officials said.

The Hunt for Al Qaeda

With Mr. Awlaki dead, U.S. counterterrorism officials have turned their attention to other imminent threats such as Mr. Asiri and Nasir al Wahishi, Osama bin Laden's former secretary in Afghanistan, who now heads Al Qaeda's Yemen branch.

Mr. Asiri has been involved in all of the group's major plots in the past two years, U.S. officials say, including an August 2009 attempt to kill a Saudi prince, the botched 2009 Christmas Day airliner bombing, and a foiled 2010 cargo plane plot, U.S.

U.S. officials investigating Mr. Asiri say he has been scouting out U.S. airline and other domestic targets on the Internet, researching the security measures taken and devising ways to circumvent them. The officials wouldn't describe further details of the new threats, which they indicated were in early stages.

Alleged role: Leading bomb maker for al Qaeda's Yemeni branch
Education: Studied chemistry at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia
Radicalization: Reportedly turned to extremist Islam as a teenager after the death of his oldest brother in a car accident
Alleged criminal acts: Failed tries in 2009 to kill a Saudi prince and bomb a passenger jet on Christmas Day, and blow up a cargo plane in 2010
Mr. Asiri has been working to develop mechanisms to stealthily deploy explosives, as well as chemical and biological weapons, the senior counterterrorism official said. He allegedly played a key role in developing plans to deploy so-called belly-bombs, surgically implanted in the bomber's abdomen.

"He is a greater operational threat than al-Awlaki," the official said. "He's pretty imaginative."

In the days following the Sept. 30 strike, some U.S. officials were unsure whether Mr. Asiri was in a car with Mr. Awlaki when a missile struck the vehicle. U.S. intelligence officials knew the identity of only one of the four occupants of the car: Mr. Awlaki. They now say they believe Mr. Asiri wasn't in the car and remains at large.

None of the 2009 or 2010 explosives plots hit their targets, but U.S. counterterrorism officials say Mr. Asiri remains a top concern because the bombs he has designed have been successful at evading detection. "All three proved that his particular brand of explosives could foil the countermeasures currently in place," said Richard Barrett, coordinator of the United Nations' al Qaeda Taliban Monitoring Team. Officials believe al Qaeda in Yemen has offered these bomb-making techniques to other terrorist groups, he said.

A Saudi native believed to be 29 years old, Mr. Asiri is skilled in martial arts and studied chemistry at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, where he began building his technical knowledge about explosives.

His nickname is Abu Salah, which means "success" in the Islamic sense, said Yigal Carmon, president of the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Mr. Asiri appears to have turned toward extremist Islam as a teenager after the death of his oldest brother in a car accident around 2000, according to Saudi newspaper interviews with Mr. Asiri's parents. Mr. Asiri and another brother, Abdullah, began following extremist propaganda, and his support was galvanized by the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He was arrested in 2005 by Saudi authorities as he sought to travel to Iraq to join the al Qaeda branch there, a U.S. counterterrorism official said. He was jailed for nine months, and upon his release he spent four months with his family and then disappeared to Yemen in 2006, according to Saudi news accounts. There, he connected with local Yemeni radicals and other al Qaeda sympathizers who were leaving Saudi Arabia.

"He and some other guys went to Yemen, because their safe haven was closing in on them," the U.S. counterterrorism official said. Both parents reportedly have condemned their son's jihadist path.

By 2007, Mr. Asiri had connected with al Qaeda members, who tutored him in explosives work, the U.S. counterterrorism official said. He later became a top al Qaeda trainer in bomb-making, and possibly martial arts.

Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com

Final solution delayed but still valid

2011-11-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

By Nasser Arrabyee , 02/10/2011

Two things happened last week and delayed the final solution for the 10-month long political crisis of Yemen.

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was supposed to authorize his deputy to sign a Gulf-brokered deal and implement all its steps until a new president is elected.

However, vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi left last week to United States for necessary medical checks.

And so did the political advisor of President Saleh, Dr Abdul Kareem Al Eryani, who is the chief negotiator with the opposition forces about the GCC deal.

The UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Bin Omar,consequently, delayed his trip to Yemen after the vice President Mr Hadi had coordinated with him and told how long he would take for medical checks in US.

Both Mr Hadi and Mr Al Eryani are scheduled to return to Sanaa on November 4 and 3 respectively.

According to reliable sources in government and opposition, the UN envoy Bin Omar,will arrive on February 10 to attend the final consultations meeting with both sides before the GCC is signed by the vice President Mr Hadi.

Some of the opposition politicians confirmed Tuesday February 1st that they were informed by the US ambassador that Saleh had agreed to authorize his deputy to act for him until a new president is elected within three months maximum after the GCC deal is signed.

The authorization decree will stipulate that Saleh will remain president until a new president is elected and that the authorized deputy should not cancel him. This is a kind of guarantee.

Immediately, after the GCC deal is signed by Mr Hadi, and the implementation mechanism is approved by both sides , the UN Security Council would issue a resolution binding all conflicting parties to implement the mechanism step by step and the UN envoy Bin Omar would be monitoring all steps and performance of all parties.

After being authorized by President Saleh, vice president Mr Hadi,would entrust someone nominated by the opposition to form a national unity government from the opposition coalition and the ruling party.

The opposition-chaired government would form a military and security committee chaired by Mr Hadi, to control the army and security.

The son and three nephews of President Saleh will remain in their positions as important commanders in army and security until the end of the transitional period.

Then, the vice president would call for presidential elections within three month.

Mr Hadi himself would be the candidate of both the ruling party and the opposition as a man of national consensus.

Hadi would elected as a transitional president for two years during which all political and constitutional issues are supposed to be solved.

However, the situation on the ground remains tense and escalation continues. The protesters refuse the GCC and insist on the ouster president Saleh without conditions, despite the fact that more than 90 percent of them belong to the opposition parties who are involved in the GCC deal and negotiations with the ruling party.

The armed opposition tribesmen supported by defected troops are still in almost daily confrontations with the government forces inside the capital and other places.

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Yemen Nobel peace prize winner described as criminal and traitor

A fundamentalist cleric described the Yemeni noble peace prize winner as a " criminal, and traitor" calling her for repentance.

" Tawakul Karman was given the prize of Jews and Christians as a reward for her major treason of Islam, State and the People," said The Salafi cleric Mohammed Al Emam in a lengthy lecture on Ms Karman.

On September 30th, 2011, the Yemeni political activist Tawakul Karman was announced as a co-winner of the Nobel peace prize with two other Liberian women.

" This woman corrupted the women and men, and she and those like her need to repent to Allah Almighty before they die," said Al Emam in his lecture which was widely distributed in Yemen by followers this week.

Mohammed Al Emam, heads one of the largest and most famous and extremist Salafi schools in Yemen.

In addition to his School, located in town of Mabar, some 70 km south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, there are about 4,000 other similar Salafi schools scattered all over the poor country.

Gulf Salafi businessmen and other religious groups, especially from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, financially and logistically support these schools.

"This woman called for rebellion against Allah, and his Messenger and Hejab, and this a criminal call," said the Salafi cleric who has tens of thousands of followers in Yemen.

Al Emam also blasted Tawakul's party, the Islamist party, Islah and called its leaders to repent to Allah Almighty as well for dealing with the enemies, in a clear reference to Americans and Westerners in general.

Yemen Nobel peace prize winner described as criminal and traitor

2011-10-31T10:13:00.001-07:00

By Nasser Arrabyee,31/10/2011

A fundamentalist cleric described the Yemeni noble peace prize winner as a " criminal, and traitor" calling her for repentance.

" Tawakul Karman was given the prize of Jews and Christians as a reward for her major treason of Islam, State and the People," said The Salafi cleric Mohammed Al Emam in a lengthy lecture on Ms Karman.

" This woman corrupted the women and men, and she and those like her need to repent to Allah Almighty before they die," said Al Emam in his lecture which was widely distributed in Yemen by followers this week.

Mohammed Al Emam, heads one of the largest and most famous and extremist Salafi schools in Yemen.

In addition to his School, located in town of Mabar, some 70 km south of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, there are about 4,000 other similar Salafi schools scattered all over the poor country.

Gulf Salafi businessmen and other religious groups, especially from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait, financially and logistically support these schools.

"This woman called for rebellion against Allah, and his Messenger and Hejab, and this a criminal call," said the Salafi cleric who has tens of thousands of followers in Yemen.

Al Emam also blasted Tawakul's party, the Islamist party, Islah and called its leaders to repent to Allah Almighty as well for dealing with the enemies, in clear reference to Americans and Westerners in general.

Yemen Nobel peace prize winner described as criminal and traitor

2011-10-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

Yemeni Airport Re-Opens After Blasts at Nearby Military Base

2011-10-31T06:49:00.000-07:00

Source: Bloomberg,31/10/2011

Sana'a-Yemen’s international airport in the capital, Sana’a, reopened after closing yesterday following explosions at the nearby al-Dailami air force base.

Flights including one from Beirut that was preparing to land at the time of the blasts were redirected to the coastal city of Aden, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) to the south, the independent online publication al-Masdar reported yesterday, citing unidentified aviation officials. Two military aircraft could be seen on fire, Al Jazeera television said.

Protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s, a U.S. ally who has held power for more than three decades, started in January and escalated into violent conflict as tribal and military leaders joined the opposition. The United Nations Security Council, in an Oct. 21 resolution, condemned the violence and urged Saleh to sign a Gulf Cooperation Council- brokered proposal under which he would leave office and elections would be held.

Shelling in Sana’a has continued after the announcement by the government last week that a cease-fire was reached between Saleh’s forces and those of Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of the country’s most influential tribal group, and General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, leader of an armored division that defected.

Saleh returned to Yemen on Sept. 23 after receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia for injuries sustained in a June attack on his compound

Yemen's armed opposition shells base of air defense and airport

2011-10-31T01:53:00.000-07:00

Source: Xinhua,31/10/2011

SANAA-The Air Force base in the Yemeni capital Sanaa was hit by mortar shells on Sunday evening and two fighter jets were set on fire, the Yemeni Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Earlier, military officials said the Air Force base was stricken by two mortar shells and the nearby airport was shut down, but no one was killed or injured.

Witnesses near the military base said that they saw big fire and smoke inside Al-Dailami Air Force Base after a series of loud explosions in northern Sanaa.

"One of the shells exploded near a small weapon depot, causing further explosions and fire, but there were no casualties, while the nearby civil airport (Sanaa International Airport) was undamaged," a military official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

However, another military official at the base said "Sanaa International Airport and the base were shelled and there were no major structural damages."

"The shells were fired by opposition armed tribesmen, and security forces are searching for suspects around the base and Sanaa airport," he told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The civil airport was shut down and the coming flights were diverted to southern Aden airport," he added.

Meanwhile, soldiers at the military base said a security investigation team have defused 10 explosive devices planted inside 10 fighter jets, blaming the defected army of the First Armored Division.

An official at the Interior Ministry said security at the two military airports was beefed up.

"The departure travelers were allowed now to get onboard planes, " he said.

"The shells were possibly fired either from Arhab district outside the capital or from Hassaba area in downtown Sanaa," he added.

Arhab and Hassaba are the scenes of almost daily clashes since May between the government troops and pro-opposition armed tribesmen led by the powerful opposition tribal leader Sadiq al- Ahmar and backed by troops of defected General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has confronted nine-month-long protests across the country calling for an end to his 33-year rule.

The government and the opposition coalition are reportedly considering a compromise based on a resolution of United Nations Security Council and a power transition deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Yemen's Al-Qaeda denies death of its media chief

2011-10-31T01:31:00.000-07:00

Source: 31/10/2011

ADEN — Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula denied on Sunday the death of its media chief in a suspected US drone strike earlier this month, a statement distributed to the public in Yemen's southern Shabwa province said.
Yemen's defence ministry announced on October 15 that Ibrahim al-Banna was among at least seven militants killed in a triple raid that also claimed the life of the teenage son of slain US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi.
The ministry at the time said Al-Banna, who was in charge of AQAP's media arm, was wanted "internationally for planning attacks both inside and outside Yemen" and was considered one of the group's "most dangerous operatives."
Al-Qaeda's Sunday statement said that the ministry's claims about Al-Banna's death were all "lies".
"These lies and allegations announced by the government... are not unusual... the government has falsely declared the death of mujahedeens many times," the statement said.
Also in the statement, the militant network claimed responsibility for an October 15 attack on a gas pipeline in Yemen's restive southeastern provinces.
Local officials had said that the pipeline was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, in an attack that forced a temporary suspension of gas exports from the Balhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden.
The damaged segment of the 320-kilometre (200 miles) gas pipeline, which links fields in the eastern Marib province with Balhaf, the primary gas terminal in the southern province of Shabwa, was restored last week.
Both provinces are strongholds of Al-Qaeda, where militants have strengthened their hold on several cities in the wake of the nine-month uprising against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, whose weakened government has lost control over several regions in the country.

Car bomb kills anti-terror chief in south Yemen

2011-10-28T08:41:00.000-07:00

Source:AP,28/10/2011

SANAA- A car bomb killed the head of the anti-terror force in Yemen's restive southern Abyan province Friday, a Yemeni security official said.

Three others, including two children, were wounded in the blast that killed Ali al-Haddi near the coastal city of Aden. The bomb was planted in al-Haddi's car, the official said.

Security has broken down across Yemen during the nine-month popular uprising against autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled the country for more than 30 years. Demonstrations raged around the country on Friday.

Al-Qaida-linked militants have taken over a number of towns in Abyan, along the country's south coast, where they regularly engage in deadly clashes with security forces. Yemeni authorities also accuse them of targeting security officials.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk brief the media.

Tens of thousands marched in anti-government demonstrations across Yemen Friday. Protesters have been on the streets nearly every day since January, despite a bloody government crackdown.

In the central city of Taiz, security forces opened fire on marchers carrying the bodies of protesters killed in recent days, wounding five people, activists said.

Thousands also marched in the capital Sanaa, where government troops have been clashing with army defectors who have joined the protests and armed men loyal to Yemen's most powerful tribal chief, who supports the opposition.

A medical official said a 28-year-old woman was killed in crossfire Friday in Sanaa during a gunbattle between the two sides. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Yemen LNG 'back in business' despite Al Qaeda attacks

2011-10-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

Source: UPI,27/10/2011

Yemen-A natural gas company in Yemen said Wednesday it was "back in business" following repairs to natural gas facilities that were attacked this month.

Engineers at Yemen LNG said they completed repairs on the pipeline, adding annual maintenance was also completed. Francois Rafin, general manager at LNG, said liquefied natural gas production from the Balhaf facility in southern Yemen restarted Wednesday.

"We are back in business," he said in a statement.

Yemen LNG said cargo that was canceled in October would be delivered by early January.

Opposition groups and al-Qaida were blamed for attacking one of the company's natural gas pipelines in Shaba province earlier this month.

The energy company said surveillance and protection of pipelines were upgraded following the attack.

Violence in Yemen is on this rise as the country's president clings to power. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has stepped up its attacks in Yemen after two of its key figures were killed, allegedly by missiles fired from CIA drones.

Balanced resolution and balanced solution

2011-10-25T11:41:00.001-07:00

By Nasser Araabyee,25/10/2011

Finally a solution for Yemen's 10-month long political crisis is almost found.

The President Ali Abdullah Saleh would stay with symbolic powers until a new president is elected in late February or early March of 2012.

Almost all presidential powers will be in the hand of Vice President, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, the man who has almost national consensus to run the country during the expected 3-6 month transition period.

Earlier this week, President Saleh welcomed a UN Security Council urging him to transfer power according to a deal brokered by the Saudi-led six nations of the Arabian Gulf and supported by the international community.

The UN resolution equally urged all armed conflicting parties to stop war and return to dialogue for political solution.

According to reliable sources close to President Saleh and opposition , all parties have agreed on a mechanism to implement the GCC deal in a way that equally satisfies almost all parties.

President Saleh is expected to announce this week a new authorization for his deputy Mr Hadi to issue republican decrees for implementing the GCC deal.

This authorization will mean that Saleh will stay until a new President is elected and Hadi will run all public affairs during the transitional period.

By this, the most complicated two issues that were always behind the failure of negations and dialogue between Saleh and the Islamist-led opposition forces, will be solved.

The negotiators agreed on 85 per cent of the issues until September 23rd, 2011, when President Saleh returned from Saudi Arabia where he had more than three months treatment from injuries he suffered from a failed assassination attempt.

The remaining 15 per cent was simply: Saleh does never want to resign before early presidential elections. The opposition wants him only to resign first.

The second issue is, if they agreed on conducting elections, will the son and nephews of Saleh who now lead the army and security, remain in their positions or not before and during the elections?

Now it seems that these two issues will be solved.

The authorized vice president Hadi, will entrust a man from the opposition to form a national unity government shared fifty, fifty by Saleh's ruling party and the opposition coalition.

The members of the new opposition- chaired government will take the constitutional oath before the authorized vice president Hadi. Taking the oath before Saleh was one of the points that some of the opposition leaders refused in the past.

The symbolic President Saleh will then call for presidential elections in which, of course, he is not going to stand as his current constitutional term is the last.

Saleh's son Ahmed, who heads the most well-equipped and qualified and trained troops of the republican guards, and the three other nephews, Yahya, Ammar, and Tarek, who are in charge of the central security, national security, and special guards respectively, will remain in their positions until a new president is elected.

The big concern of the opposition about holding presidential elections with the army and security still controlled by Saleh, will be removed by forming a military and security committee chaired by the authorized vice president Hadi. The army and security will be under the control of this committee in which the opposition forces will be represented.

The ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, EU, and GCC were briefed on this new mechanism of implementing the GCC deal by the Yemeni government on Monday October 24th, 2011.

The political advisor of President Saleh, Dr Abdul Kareem Al Eryani, who briefed the diplomats on the new solution of the 10-month long political crisis in Yemen said, " We are very interested in finding out a political solution with the opposition based on the GCC deal and the UN Security Council resolution."

The UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar, and GCC chief Abdul Latif Al Zayani are expected to return to Yemen next week to monitor the implementation of the GCC deal with the new mechanism.