UN Chief: Situation in Yemen Worring

Source: PressTV

The UN secretary-general has voiced concern about the humanitarian situation in Yemen, where fighting continues between Houthis fighters and the Yemeni army.

Ban Ki-moon made the comment in a Monday phone conversation with the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his Spokesperson, Martin Nesirky, told reporters in New York.

The secretary-general also expressed concern about the presence of al-Qaeda in Yemen, while announcing his support for the British-led conference that is scheduled to be held in London later this month to discuss the issue.

"Ban was appreciative of the initiative of Prime Minister Brown and welcomed the focus of the conference on counter-terrorism,” Nesirky said.

“He sought assurance that the President of Yemen is involved in the preparation of the conference,” he added.

The UN secretary-general's comments came as the Yemeni army continued its attack on the Houthis in northern Yemen, while also launching several operations against al-Qaeda militants in the south.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. Relative peace had returned to the region until the Yemeni army launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Scorched Earth, against Sa'ada Province five months ago.

The government claims that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 military coup.

The Houthis, however, say they are defending their people's civil rights, which the government has undermined under pressure from Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists. Shias, who form the clear majority in the north, make up approximately half of Yemen's overall population.

As Sana'a does not allow independent media into the conflict zone, there are no clear estimates available as to how many people have been killed in the Shia province of Sa'ada since 2004 or in the recent wave of violence.

According to UN estimates, however, during the past five years, more than 175,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Sa'ada to take refuge in overcrowded camps set up by the international body.

Of those 175,000, over 50,000 of those refugees left the war-torn province just in the first few weeks after the new round of conflict began.

Based on figures released by the UN Children's Fund, the unrest has directly affected almost 75,000 children as well.
------------------------------------------------
2010 Jan 05

Clinton: Yemen Threatens Region, World



Source: PressTV

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says insecurity in Yemen is a regional and global threat, as the White House prepares the ground for a new war in the region.

"The instability in Yemen is a threat to regional stability and even global stability," Clinton told reporters following talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani on Monday.

"And certainly, we know that this is a difficult set of challenges, but they have to be addressed," she added.

She also said that Washington was working closely with its allies on deciding "the best way forward" to address the security concerns.

Clinton said the Yemeni government had to take measures to restore stability or risk losing Western support.

Citing warnings of a possible attack from an al-Qaeda-linked group Washington closed its embassy in Sana'a on Sunday, before reopening it on Tuesday.

After the US closed its embassy, Britain and later France did the same. Japan also decided to suspend consular services at its embassy.

The UK Foreign Office, however, denied that the embassy closure was linked to such a threat, saying that it was unaware about the warning.

In response to Western claims, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi rejected any comparison between his country and Afghanistan as an Al-Qaeda haven.

"Yemen is capable of confronting these groups, but it needs international aid to form and train anti-terrorist units as well as economic aid, since the problem also has an economic dimension," Kurbi told reporters during a visit to Doha.

This is while international talks on the security and development situation in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, are expected to be held next month.

After Pakistan, southern Yemen is seen as the primary stronghold for al-Qaeda militants, a safe haven they are using to organize and train more recruits.

Despite apparent US calls for the eradication of al-Qaeda, allegations have been made that Washington has transferred "hundreds" of al-Qaeda members of different nationalities to Yemen after releasing them from prisons in Saudi Arabia and Guantanamo.

Arab media that have published the claims, such as Al-Minbar, write that the US is transferring al-Qaeda members to Yemen to have them recruited in the Yemeni army to target Shia Houthi fighters in northern parts of the country or use them as an excuse to deploy forces to Yemen.

A while after the claims were published the US engaged in direct military activity in Yemen, but allegations about recruiting al-Qaeda for the Yemeni army are yet to be proven.

Speculations are that former US presidential candidate John McCain made such a proposal while visiting Yemen back in August 2009.

He had reportedly embarked on the trip after several closed-door discussions were held at the US congress about the Arab country.

Allegations that the US is secretly transferring al-Qaeda members to Yemen could explain why a Nigerian man, who has been arrested and charged with trying to blow up the transatlantic plane on December 25, is said to have ties with the militants in Yemen.

The 23-year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has allegedly confessed to being trained by an Al-Qaeda bomb-maker in Yemen for a mission on the Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

The West, spearheaded by the US, seems to be paving the ground to intervene in Yemen internal affairs under the pretext of opening an alleged front against al-Qaeda in the country.

The development comes more than eight years after the former US President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan. The operation was said to be aimed at eradicating militancy and the arrest of main militant leaders including Osama Bin Laden.

According to UN figures, Afghan civilians have been the main victims of the controversial war.

It appears that Washington needs to prove the West is insecure and under threat by the so-called terrorist groups like al-Qaeda to legitimize its wars, since such entities are merely the product of the media machines in the West.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010 Jan 03

US Shuts Yemen Embassy Over Threats



Source: Al Jazeera

The United States has closed its embassy in Sanaa citing threats from an al-Qaeda group.

The US embassy posted a message on its website on Sunday saying it was closed "in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen".
It did not say when it would reopen.

Embassy officials would not comment if there was a specific threat, but Hakim al-Masmari, the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post newspaper, told Al Jazeera that the closure could only mean, "that they believe al-Qaeda threat is very serious".
"If you look at the recent video tapes from al-Qaeda, they clearly mention they have no enemy in Yemen except the US interests in Yemen. They warned the Yemeni soldiers against helping the Americans in any such way," al-Masmari said.

"We really expect attacks on the US interests in the next month by al-Qaeda."
Joint support

The US move came shortly after the British government announced plans to join the United States in funding an "anti-terrorist" force in Yemen.

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has said he will hold a meeting in London on January 28 to discuss how to counter radicalization in Yemen.
British officials also said that Brown and Barack Obama, the US president, believed more peacekeepers were needed to curtail the crisis in Somalia, which is located across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen.

The US government has said it will be more than doubling its military assistance to Yemen. Obama on Saturday blamed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which claims to be affiliated with Osama bin Laden's organization, for the attempted bombing of a US airliner bound for the city of Detroit on Christmas day.

"We're learning more about the suspect. We know that he traveled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies," the US president said on Saturday.

"It appears that he joined an affiliate of al-Qaeda and that this group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America."

US military aid to Yemen has been inconsistent in recent years, with Sana'a receiving $4.3m in 2006, up to $26m in 2007, down to nothing in 2008, and back up still higher, to $67m in 2009.

Long-term Problem

Mahan Abedin, director of the Center for the Study of Terrorism, says that while US aid has fluctuated, the al-Qaeda presence in Yemen has not.

"They've had Yemen in their sights for a very long time ... at least as long as September 11. Even prior to that … Yemen has had a strong militancy problem since the late 1980's."

The fear among Western governments is that Yemen is poised to collapse amid extreme poverty and dwindling resources, and the ungoverned state would provide a safe haven for armed groups.

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has said he will hold a meeting in London on January 28 to discuss how to counter radicalization in Yemen.
The government in Sana'a is struggling to contain an uprising by Shia Houthi rebels in the country's north and a secessionist movement in the south, in addition to the re-grouping of al-Qaeda fighters in recent years.

General David Petraeus, the commander of the US central command, visited Yemen on Saturday to discuss military and economic co-operation with Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Yemeni president, according to officials from both countries.
Petraeus had announced a day earlier that US military aid to Yemen "will more than double this coming year".

Limited Options

Experts say Obama's military options to combat al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are limited.

David Newton, a former US ambassador to Yemen, said his main option "is one he's already doing - using predators [drones] to go after terrorists that they are able to locate".

"To do that, [he] has to co-operate with Saudi security and Yemeni security, and use our own independent means to find them."

Newton said the greater challenge will be to stabilize the country, which has seen a failing economy, severe water shortages, and a ballooning population in recent years.

Other al-Qaeda affiliated groups, such as in Somalia, have meanwhile vowed to support the Yemeni fighters.
----------------------------------
2010 Jan 03

UK to Follow US Intervention in Yemen



Source: PressTV

The British premier's office says that Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama have agreed to fight what they call terrorism in Yemen and Somalia.

The UK and the US have agreed to fund a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle the rising threat from the country.

The British premier's office says that Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama have agreed to fight what they call terrorism in Yemen and Somalia.

The UK and the US have agreed to fund a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen to tackle what they deem the rising threat from the country.

The US has been involved in war in Yemen by sending its special forces to train the Yemeni military and conducting air raids in both northern and southern parts of the Middle Eastern country.

Obama Order

On December 18, ABC News quoted anonymous administration officials as saying that US Nobel Peace Prize laureate President Barack Obama ordered the US military to launch air strikes on Yemen.

Upon the orders of Obama, the military warplanes on December 17 blanketed two camps in the North of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, claiming there were "an imminent attack against a US asset was being planned." The attacks killed scores of civilians, according to Yemeni opposition groups.

Fighting in the North

US military intervention in Yemen comes at a time that the country's army with full support from Saudi Arabia has been fighting with Shia Houthi fighters in northern parts of the country.

Houthi fighters say both Saudi and US fighter jets have been involved in bombing Shia villages, inflicting heavy civilian casualties.

Earlier, the fighters had expressed full readiness for dialogue with the Yemeni government.

The Houthis say they will turn to talks if the Yemeni and Saudi military halt their attacks against them.

The conflict in northern Yemen began in 2004 between Sana'a and Houthi fighters. Relative peace had returned to the region for a period before August 11, when the Yemeni army launched a major offensive, dubbed Operation Scorched Earth, against Sa'ada Province.

The government claims that the fighters, who are named after their leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi, seek to restore the Shia imamate system, which was overthrown in a 1962 military coup.

The Houthis, however, say they are defending their people's civil rights, which the government has undermined under pressure from Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists. Shias, who form the clear majority in the north, make up approximately half of Yemen's overall population.

The United Nations, which according to its charter is set up "to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace," has failed to adopt any concrete measures to help end the bloody war.

US War on Terror

The latest alleged front against al-Qaeda in Yemen is opened more than eight years after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan which was said to be aimed at eradicating militancy and the arrest of main militant leaders including Osama Bin Laden.

According to UN figures, Afghan civilians have been the main victims of the controversial war.