Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2014 22:50:04 +0100
Yemen Announces Lineup of Its New Cabinet
ADEN, Yemen - Nov 8, 2014, 8:02 PM ET
By AHMED AL-HAJ Associated Press
Associated Press
Yemen's state-run TV on Friday announced the lineup of the country's new
Cabinet following a U.N.-brokered deal with Shiite rebels who had overrun
the capital of Sanaa and plunged the country into another crisis.
The Houthi rebels captured Sanaa in September, allegedly with the tacit
support of the country's former president and demanded that President Abed
Rabbo Mansour Hadi appoint a new government, complaining the previous one
was too close to their rival conservative Sunni Islamist party.
After weeks of violence and political wrangling, during which a
U.N.-brokered deal was reached, Khaled Bahah was nominated for prime
minister and tasked with forming a new government. But a dispute over who
would form the Cabinet continued until last Saturday, when all Yemeni
parties and political groups agreed on an apolitical technocrat Cabinet.
The compromise was an important step in efforts to regain stability in the
volatile and deeply impoverished country.
The TV said late Friday that the new Cabinet has 37 members, including
Bahah, the prime minister and 29 other newcomers, while seven ministers were
left over from the previous government.
The new faces included Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Mahmoud al-Subaihi, a top
army commander in southern Yemen with a record of combating al-Qaida, as
well as Foreign Minister Abdullah al-Saaidi, a veteran diplomat, and
Information Minister Nadia al-Saqqaf, the country's first female information
minister.
The announcement came shortly after thousands of Houthis and of supporters
of ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh rallied in Sanaa Friday, denouncing
the United States over its push for sanctions against Saleh and rebel
leaders.
On Friday, the U.N. Security Council imposed sanctions on Saleh and two
leaders of the Houthi rebels for threatening the peace, security and
stability of the country. The council ordered a freeze of all assets and a
global travel ban on Saleh, the rebel group's military commander, Abd
al-Khaliq al-Huthi, and the Houthi's second-in-command, Abdullah Yahya al
Hakim.
Saleh stepped down in 2011 as part of a U.S.-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.
The protesters in Sanaa - in much smaller numbers than usual on a Friday -
carried posters urging the U.S. ambassador to get out of the country.
Saleh's party this week accused the American ambassador of telling the
former president to leave Yemen by Friday or face sanctions. Washington
vehemently denied making any such demand, but the party's claim has stoked
anger of alleged U.S. "interference."
Even some in the Sunni Islamist Islah party - a sharp opponent of the
Houthis and Saleh - joined in the anger. In parliament Thursday, a leading
Islah lawmaker, Mansour al-Zindani, demanded that both the American
ambassador and the U.N. envoy to Yemen leave the country. The Islah party
later issued an apology for his comments.
The Houthis, who belong to the Zaydi branch of Shiite Islam, have been
fighting their way out of their stronghold in the north since last year and
took control of Sanaa in September, largely by defeating forces loyal to the
Islah party. In the past month they made further gains toward central Yemen,
at times fighting al-Qaida's branch in the country.
In a new audio clip posted online Friday, the head of Yemen's al-Qaida in
the Arabian Peninsula, Nasser al-Wahishi, sought to rally Sunnis to his
group, accusing the United States of aligning itself with the Houthis and
with Shiite Iran to "draw a new map to the Muslim world, to divide what is
already divided."
Al-Wahishi said the alliance is clear in Yemen, where "Americans are in the
air while Houthis are on the ground," a reference to U.S. drone strikes and
Houthis' battles against al-Qaida. The Houthis' opponents accuse them of
being a proxy for Iran, a claim the group and Tehran deny.
In southern Yemen, special forces killed an al-Qaida operative, Turki
al-Asseri, also known as by the nom de guerre Marawan al-Makni, in the city
of Lahj, an al-Qaida stronghold, a security official said, speaking on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
Earlier this week, drone strikes in the central city of Radda killed a
senior al-Qaida figure, Shawki Ali Ahmed al-Badani, designated by the U.S.
as a global terrorist.
The United States has been waging a campaign of drone strikes for years
against the group, which carried out a string of attempted attacks on
American soil.
---- Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this story. Mideast Yemen Yemeni security members stand guard during a meeting of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh's General People's Congress party in Sanaa, Yemen, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014. Backers of Yemen's deposed president on Wednesday accused U.S. Ambassador Matthew... <javascript:void(0);> View Full Caption The Associated Press
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