Yemen
and
its Saleh Deal
Under Saudi
Eyes, US
Drones, Qatar
Funding
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 21 --
When Nobel
Peace Prize
winner
Tawakkul
Karman
came to the UN
earlier this
year, she
denounced the
Gulf
Cooperation
Council's
"immunity
deal" for
President Ali
Saleh, and her
supporters
chanted,
"Saudi Arabia
out of Yemen!"
Now
in the run up
to an
ostensibly
post-Saleh
Yemeni
government to
be elected on
February 21,
Inner City
Press on
December 21
asked UN envoy
Jamal
Benomar about
the impact on
Yemen and his
mediation work
of Saudi
Arabia, the
United States,
and Qatar. Video
here, from
Minute 28:25.
Saudi
Arabia in
2009 took
military
action against
the Houthis in
Yemen, just as
it
has more
recently in
Bahrain. The
US is
described as
engaged in a
stealth or
drone war in
Yemen, and
Qatar is known
to fund some
parties in
Yemen, just as
it has in
Libya.
Benomar,
ever the
diplomat
(actually for
his views he
has been
imprisoned and
committed, too
far among
current UN
high
officials)
told Inner
City Press
that "Yemen
has neighbors,
there are
important
members of the
international
community."
He
said that the
situation in
Yemen "effects
maritime
routes in the
areas, and
also Yemen is
next door to
some of the
biggest oil
fields in the
world... The
concern of the
international
community is
there... We
work very
closely with
Saudi Arabia,
with the GCC
countries." Video
here, from
Minute 29:35.
(c) UN Photo
Ban Ki-moon
and Saleh,
close work
with Saudi
Arabia not
shown
In
a process
that,
for example,
Russian
Permanent
Representative
Vitaly Churkin
has
praised,
Benomar
described "in
Sana'a a group
of Ambassadors
of
the GCC and
P[ermanent]
Five [members
of the
Security
Council]
collectively...
speak with one
voice."
Some
have said
wistfully they
wished this
type of major
power
collaboration
was
possible on,
for example,
Syria. That
seems
unlikely, not
only with
reference to
Benomar's
work, but
because in
Yemen all the
major
powers oppose
Al Qaeda, and
all but
perhaps Iran
are willing to
sacrifice the
Houthis to
Saudi Arabia.
And so it
goes.
, 
