Archive: yemen
9th February 2010
Despite talk of a ceasefire in the Yemeni-Saudi war with the Houthi rebels, fighting continues. AFP reports that 10 Yemeni soldiers died in the latest clashes, while the rebels say Saudi warplanes fired at least 150 rockets on Sunday, killing two children.
One encouraging sign, though, it that the… Read more
8th February 2010
Tariq Alhomayed, editor-in-chief of the Saudi newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, has been reflecting on that bizarre incident (reported here last week) when Tariq al-Fadhli, self-appointed leader of Yemen's southern separatist movement, hoisted an American flag at his home in Abyan while sounds of The… Read more
6th February 2010
AFP is reporting that the Yemeni government has drawn up a ceasefire timetable and relayed it to the Houthi rebels via an intermediary. There is also talk of having the ceasefire implementation overseen by parliamentary committees.
This is beginning to look more hopeful. At least one previous… Read more
6th February 2010
Calm analysis of Yemen's problems, by Yemenis from inside the country, is rather scarce but Abdullah al-Faqih, Professor of Political Science at Sana’a University, provides exactly that in an articleheaded "The challenges of dealing with Yemen’s deep crises".
It's a clear and concise review of the… Read more
5th February 2010
A video purporting to show members of the Saudi armed forces torturing suspected Houthi rebels has been posted on the internet.
The Washington-based Saudi Information Agency (critical of the Saudi regime) says:
The prisoners, who are suspected to be affiliated with the Houthi rebel group operating… Read more
1st February 2010
This Yemeni ceasefire business is getting confusing. Yesterday, the government appeared to reject the offer from the Houthi rebels. But now Yemen's National Defence Council says it "will have no objection" to ending military operations if the rebels abide by all six of the government-decreed… Read more
31st January 2010
Once again there is speculation about a ceasefire in the war with Yemen's Houthi rebels – though whether it will actually happen is anyone's guess.
The cause of the speculation is an audio recording by the rebels' leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, posted on the internet. In the recording, he says the… Read more
29th January 2010
Coinciding with the London conference on Yemen, Saudi Arabia announced that it had won its war with Yemen's Houthi rebels.
The fighting does appear to have stopped, at least for now, though it's not the first time the Saudis have claimed victory. In December, in a statement reminiscent of George… Read more
28th January 2010
There were a number of encouraging signs from yesterday's international meeting in London about Yemen. The first is that it didn't get too preoccupied with al-Qaida and recognised that the country faces "many urgent problems" (to put it mildly) which are inter-related and need to be tackled across… Read more
21st January 2010
On Wednesday the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a session about Yemen and the transcripts are now online.
Overall, I think the committee got a pretty good picture of the "Yemen problem" – a valuable antidote to some of the rubbish that is being churned out in the American media.
The… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
