Photo Credit: Atlantic Council
Mohammed al-Hassani, of the Yemen Times, reports that members within the 8+8 Subcommittee tasked with reaching consensus on the “Southern Issue” are urging for a final decision to be made after the National Dialogue ends, according to subcommittee member Nadia Abdulla. Al-Hassani suggests that Southern participants favor a two-region solution, one in the north and one in the south, whereas the General People’s Congress (GPC), former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s party, proposed a five-region state, three in the north and two in the south. The youth, civil society representatives, and the Nasserite Party, al-Hassani notes, oppose postponing the “Southern Issue” decision until after the dialogue and instead support forming a committee composed of local and international experts to resolve the issue before the end of the National Dialogue.
According to Gulf News’s Saeed al-Batati, the GPC filed an official complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon against U.N. Special Envoy Jamal Benomar for “abandon[ing] his role as a mediator and [throwing] in his lot with the Joint Meeting Parties.” The Secretary General, al-Batati suggests, has ignored the complaint and urged all parties to work with Benomar on the transition process.
Analyzing the current deadlock and turmoil in Yemen in a new report, the Atlantic Council’s Danya Greenfield argues, “Without delivering some improvement in the standard of living, generating economic activity, and addressing baseline needs for survival… the Yemeni government risk[s] losing all remaining credibility among its people.” Greenfield suggests, a “new government” with “a vision to lead the country forward” and an Economic Cabinet, “which would include the ministers and deputy ministers from relevant ministries, along with five or six outside economists or policy analysts” are needed to help Yemen’s economy immediately.
Meanwhile, in Sana’a today, Yemen’s Defense Ministry headquarters was attacked by a suicide bomber driving a car into one end of the ministry, while gunmen on foot attacked the other end with automatic rifles. The U.S. State Department released a statement condemning the terrorist attacks and reiterating the U.S.’s firm commitment “to supporting the Yemeni people as they seek to conclude the National Dialogue and move forward peacefully with Yemen’s historic democratic transition.”