UN imposes sanctions on Yemen's ex-president
Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Houthi rebel commanders hit with assets freeze and travel ban for threatening peace.
Last updated: 08 Nov 2014 00:51
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The UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two allied rebel commanders for threatening the peace and stability of the country and obstructing the political process.
Lithuanian UN Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, chair of the council's Yemen sanctions committee, said on Friday all 15 members had agreed to blacklist Saleh and Houthi rebel military leaders Abd al-Khaliq al-Houthi and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim.
The three men are now subject to a global travel ban and asset freeze.
The UN Security Council in February authorised sanctions against anyone in Yemen who obstructs the country's political transition or commits human rights violations, but stopped short of blacklisting any specific individuals.
The United States submitted a formal request to the Yemen sanctions committee a week ago for Saleh and the Houthi leaders, whom Washington accuses of destabilising the country, to be the first people designated.
In a letter to the committee, Washington said Saleh "was behind the attempts to cause chaos throughout Yemen" by using the Houthi group to "not only delegitimise the central government, but also create enough instability to stage a coup."
The US referred to a panel of experts report that said Saleh had resorted to al-Qaeda operatives to carry out assassinations and attacks in a bid to weaken his successor President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
The letter also said that rebel commander Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim had plotted in June to stage a coup against Hadi in meetings with tribal leaders, security commanders and other figures loyal to Saleh.
Saleh has denied seeking to destabilise Yemen and his party warned after a meeting on Thursday that any sanctions on the former president or "even waving such a threat would have negative consequences on the political process."
The UN decision came after thousands of Saleh and Houthi supporters filled the streets of Sanaa to protest the move to punish the ex-leader, accused of being the main backer of the rebels.
Also on Friday, Yemen announced <
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/yemen-announces-new-government-2014117183343618108.html> a new 36-member government intended to pull the country out of political crisis, the state news agency Saba said.
Formation of the new cabinet under a peace deal agreed on September 21, the day Shia Houthi rebels seized the capital, had been delayed because of tensions between the rebels and their political rivals.
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Yemen president sacked from party leadership
Last updated: 08 Nov 2014 11:18
Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi has been dismissed from the leadership of his party after being accused of soliciting UN sanctions against his predecessor Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The General People's Congress on Saturday said it appointed two members to the posts of vice president and secretary general in place of Hadi, who became president after Saleh was forced to resign in February 2012 after a year of bloody protests.
<
http://www.aljazeera.com/video/middleeast/2014/11/un-imposes-sanctions-yemen-ex-president-2014117233551618637.html> The UN Security Council a day earlier imposed sanctions on Saleh and allied two Shia Houthi rebel commanders for threatening the peace and stability of the country and obstructing the political process.
The three men, including military leaders Abd al-Khaliq al-Houthi and Abdullah Yahya al-Hakim, are now subject to a global travel ban and asset freeze.
Saleh denied seeking to destabilise Yemen and his party had warned that any sanctions on the former president or "even waving such a threat would have negative consequences on the political process".
The UN decision came after thousands of Saleh and Houthi supporters filled the streets of Sanaa to protest the move to punish the ex-leader, accused of being the main backer of the rebels.
"GPC party's sacking of Hadi is obviously the first reaction to UN sanctions against Saleh. But how significant is the decision [remains to be seen]," Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the capital, said.
"Hadi has never had huge sway in the party, now he will try to reach out to other political factions to strengthen his position," Ahelbarra said.
'Sectarian divide'
Saleh stepped down in 2011 as part of a US-backed, Gulf-brokered deal after months of protests against his rule.
But Hadi's backers accuse Saleh of undermining his successor. Many believe Saleh, who remains a powerful
political player, helped Houthi rebels in the past months as they swept into Sanaa.
Yemen on Friday <
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/11/yemen-announces-new-government-2014117183343618108.html> announced a new 36-member government intended to pull the country out of political crisis.
But violence continued to rage across the country.
On Saturday, al-Qaeda said its fighters in central Yemen killed dozens of Houthi rebels in twin attacks that included a suicide bombing.
Tribal sources also said dozens died in the attacks, including when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a medical centre converted into a barracks by the Houthi rebels in the Rada region of Manaseh.
"Since Houthis overran the capital in September, they have expanded to areas that are predominantly Sunni, prompting Sunni tribes to make alliances with al-Qaeda to quell the Houthis," Ahelbarra said.
"This has increased the sectarian divide, a development that is very worrying for the international community".
Received on Sat Nov 08 2014 - 16:05:56 EST