How WikiLeaks trove will affect US-Arab cooperation on Iran, Yemen

The WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables could put Arab leaders in a tight spot – and make America's diplomatic dance a bit more awkward in the region.

Source: The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com,By Dan Murphy, Staff writer, Laura Kasinof, 30/11/2010
Cairo; and Sanaa, Yemen
The first WikiLeaks release of raw intelligence from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars contained few shocking revelations. But the trove of diplomatic cables released Sunday is something else again, perhaps nowhere more so than for the Middle East.

Though it's too soon to predict what impact they will have on government behavior, these products of US embassies throughout the region starkly contradict the public stances of some regional governments. In particular, they detail the extent to which Saudi Arabia and other Arab powers are afraid of Shiite Iran's nuclear program and growing regional influence – and their consequent willingness to support US-led military action against Iran.

While Iran has been given ammunition in its diplomatic dance with its regional rivals, and some of the countries may face limited blowback from angry citizens, the most immediate impact of the WikiLeaks release may not be a shift in strategy so much as in diplomacy. Arab leaders could well be reluctant to speak candidly with US diplomats, since America's ability to keep such conversation private has now been cast into doubt.

IN PICTURES: Wikileaks and the war in Iraq
"[Arab governments'] security perceptions and threat perception of Iran are not going to change because of the leaks. They will presumably make similar assessments, just the diplomatic game will change," says Issandr el-Amrani, an independent political analyst in Cairo who runs the Arabist blog.

He also cautions that officials may be less than honest with US diplomats as well as their own people, in order to secure lucrative arms deals or other aims. The Obama administration is currently pushing for a $60 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia, whose cooperation could prove integral to any military strike on nearby Iran.
RELATED: WikiLeaks reveals 5 Arab countries concerned about Iran
Arab attitudes

While the Sunni Arab leaders' fears are nothing new, it's generally been thought that they're not in favor of US military attacks on Iran. If they supported such an attack, they could face an angry response from their own populations over another US offensive on a Muslim nation. They may also have concerns about the economic damage an all-out war could produce – particularly if it disrupts oil exports along the Persian Gulf.

But the cables show some Arab regimes urging a reluctant US to take any steps necessary to head off Iran, something that's sharply at odds from these governments' more measured rhetoric. One US cable from 2008 recounts the Saudi ambassador to the US, Adel al-Jubair, telling a diplomat of Saudi King Abdullah's "frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons program... he told you to cut the head off the snake."
Another cable from 2009 quotes Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, also a close US ally, calling "forcefully for taking action to terminate [Iran's] nuclear program, by whatever means necessary." Bahrain hosts America's Fifth Fleet, the naval command responsible for the Persian Gulf – and thus likely to take a lead role in any confrontation with Iran.

Egypt has been somewhat more measured, expressing both alarm at Iran's ambitions and its own fears of how its people will react if it speaks out too forcefully or becomes publicly engaged. One cable describes a 2008 meeting between Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, in which the Egyptian president called the Iranians "big, fat liars" and state sponsors of terrorism. "But I cannot say it publicly. It would create a dangerous situation," the cable reported him as saying.

Israel greeted the WikiLeaks download as vindication of its Iran policy, taking apparent delight in the public confirmation that their Arab neighbors share their fears about Tehran.
RELATED: Israel greets WikiLeaks cables as vindication of its Iran policy
But Wayne White, former deputy director of Middle East desk at the State Department’s Bureau for Intelligence and Research, cautions that the revelations don't amount to Arab states seeking common cause with Israel.

“They don’t view themselves as part and parcel of some policy that Israel is a part of. They don’t see themselves in any kind of conspiracy, or as more amenable to things like being interested in contact with Israel,” says Mr. White, now a scholar with the Middle East Institute in Washington. “They fear Israel in this light: Israel is most likely to strike Iran and most likely to do it incompletely, leaving a wounded beast at their front door.”
Yemen's veil is lifted

Yemen too, is presented as reluctant to be honest with its own people about its relationship with the US on another key security question: the activity of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which appears to be ramping up attacks against the West – including the recent cargo bomb plot.

For the past year, the US has been thought to be conducting air strikes in the country against militant Islamists, with Yemen's permission. Yemen has publicly denied that; its populace is staunchly opposed to any US intervention. But one of the cables appears to remove the fig-leaf of plausible deniability, which could compromise counterterrorism efforts there."We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to US Central Command Gen. David Petraeus, according to a cable.

His comment came after Petraeus guaranteed that US foreign aid to Yemen would more than double in 2010.The cable, from Jan. 4, 2010, was authored by former US ambassador to Yemen Stephen Seche, and is the first official evidence that the United States carried out air strikes against Al Qaeda in Yemen in December 2009.The cable also confirms that the Yemeni government agreed to American air power circling just out of sight of Yemeni territory, set to strike Al Qaeda targets in Yemen as soon as intelligence is available as to their whereabouts.

RELATED: WikiLeaks reveals 5 Arab countries concerned about Iran
Will Arab leaders pay a price for 'diplomatic heresy'?
Both the United States and Yemen have tried to downplay America’s role in Yemen, where the central government – beset by economic woes, a southern secession movement, and tribal tensions – can ill afford to spark popular discontent.

“For Yemeni people, from the beginning they did not believe the government claims that air strikes against in Al Majala and elsewhere were carried out by Yemeni forces," says Aidroos Al Naqeeb, the chairman of the Yemen’s opposition Socialist Party's parliamentary bloc. "The importance of what WikiLeaks has revealed is that it defines the foreign party who actually carried out the attacks. It is so regretful that Yemeni government not only allowed such crimes against human lives and rights, but also it claimed responsibility.”

The Yemeni embassy in Washington and the American embassy in Sanaa refused to comment on the leaked cable on Monday.

Ahmed Al Zurqa, author of a book on Al Qaeda in Yemen, warned that American military action in Yemen will help AQAP recruit Yemenis who don't want to see their administration acting as a puppet of the United States. “Al Qaeda is using the mistakes of these operations,” such as civilian casualties, to gain recruits, he said. "The people here hate terrorism, but they also hate intruders who come and kill Yemenis."

George Washington University political scientist Marc Lynch writes in his Foreign Policy blog that the "million dollar question" is whether we find out if Arab regimes' "fears of expressing these views in public" were justified.

"Will Arab leaders pay any significant political price for these positions, as they clearly feared? Or will it turn out that in this era of authoritarian retrenchment they really can get away with whatever diplomatic heresies they like even if it outrages public opinion?"
IN PICTURES: Wikileaks and the war in Iraq

Yemeni president covers up US strikes: WikiLeaks

Source: AFP, 29/11/ 2010
WASHINGTON — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh admits covering up US military strikes on Al-Qaeda in Yemen by claiming they are carried out by Yemeni forces, according to US documents leaked by WikiLeaks.

"We?ll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours," Saleh said in January talks with General David Petraeus, then commander of US forces in the Middle East, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable published by the New York Times.

The cable was sent by the US ambassador to Yemen, the daily said.
The daily said the remarks prompted Yemen?s deputy prime minister to "joke that he had just ?lied? by telling parliament" that Yemeni forces had staged the strikes against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Al-Qaeda's Yemeni arm.

And during a meeting about Al-Qaeda with John Brennan, the US deputy national security adviser, Saleh was "dismissive, bored and impatient," according to another leaked US diplomatic cable published in Britain's The Guardian.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Washington had deployed drones to hunt down jihadists.

With more than 100,000 US troops fighting Al-Qaeda's allies in Afghanistan and public skepticism in Yemen over the US military's role there, US officials have stressed that Sanaa will lead the fight against Islamist militants.

On November 16, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said providing equipment and training to Yemeni security forces offered the best way to counter the threat posed by Al-Qaeda militants

Gulf Cup terror fears no match for football in Yemen

Source: BBC News, By Justin Marozzi

28/11/201o

Thousands of Yemenis turned up for the first game of the Gulf Cup

Aden- Despite international fears of terror attacks, Yemen is proving itself to be a perfect host for an eight-nation football tournament on the Arabian Peninsula.

When I told a friend I was off to Yemen for the Gulf Cup of Nations football tournament in Aden, he asked me if I was insane. He was not alone.

According to one newspaper, this was "the most dangerous region of the most dangerous country on earth".

The headline in an American magazine expressed the reaction of many: "Al-Qaeda bombings, drive-by shootings and penalty kicks - what are they thinking?"

Kuwait and Bahrain took some convincing to join the tournament
I asked another friend, a distinguished sports writer, if he fancied a few days out in the Gulf. Out of the question, he said. His wife would not let him go.

On the surface it seemed only reasonable to question the wisdom of staging an international football tournament in the heartland of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

And for once this was not a uniquely Western view. Some of Yemen's neighbours had their doubts, too.

There were wobbles from Kuwait and Bahrain, before they decided to grin and bear it and join the six other Gulf countries in Aden.

A Yemeni friend told me of the Arab tourism minister who had got the jitters and frantically prepared a will before his flight to Yemen.

"Then I got here," he said later, "and on my first day in Aden I found myself wandering through the streets at two in the morning, speaking to people, eating outside in restaurants thoroughly enjoying myself. I was completely comfortable."
Electric atmosphere

You have to wonder what the Iraqi footballers, who have lived through an inferno of violence since 2003, made of all the fuss.

Women at the Yemen vs Saudi Arabia match were the noisiest supporters
In the run-up to the tournament the government launched an unprecedented security operation involving more than 30,000 soldiers.

That did not mean people were not worried about the opening ceremony and the match that followed it, Yemen versus Saudi Arabia.
What chance an al-Qaeda spectacular?

I watched the game in the city's main stadium, packed way beyond its capacity of 30,000.
In scenes that made Western security experts wince, fans crowded up and down gangways, sat and stood and danced on the stadium's outer rim and filled every space available.
The women, wrapped in black abayas, were easily the noisiest, cheering wildly and waving the national red, black and white flags of Yemen deliriously.

A few rows down from me was a boisterous Saudi fan surrounded by Yemenis.
From time to time he broke into exuberant song, waving his green-and-white Saudi flag.
Each time his team scored, he jumped up and started dancing and yelling in glee.

More than 30,000 people turned up to see Yemen take on Saudi Arabia
His celebrations would have struck most British observers as provocative. I could not help cringing.

If he was not careful, I thought, this triumphalist Saudi would end up being lynched by insulted home fans.

In England, he would not have lasted long. But then in England he would not have been standing with rival fans in the first place.

The Yemenis, however, saluted him and joined in with his songs. The atmosphere was electric, the joy infectious.

Yemen has been confounding foreign visitors like this for centuries.
The birthplace of Arab civilisation has seen a succession of foreigners come and go: the Portuguese, Ottomans, British and Russians have all been bamboozled by a famously complex country.

I certainly was not expecting to see a statue of Queen Victoria in her pomp proudly displayed in one of Aden's public parks. So much for al-Qaeda's heartland.
For their part, Yemenis do not always understand the outside world, either.

They are slightly baffled by the reaction to the parcel bomb that was not, al-Qaeda's failed plot hatched in Yemen to down a US-bound cargo plane. It strikes them as Western hysteria.
In the end, the only thing spectacular about the opening evening of the tournament was the result, a thumping 4-0 thrashing by the Saudis.
Link to qat?
Yemenis love their football but, like English football fans, have grown used to a team that traditionally disappoints.

Some commentators have attributed the poor performance of Yemeni footballers to the chewing of qat leaves, the mildly hallucinogenic, amphetamine-like stimulant that is legal in Yemen - and in the UK - and reportedly consumed by 72% of men here.

Lunchtime sees most of the country dashing into the nearest market to buy the freshest leaves, returning home with the tell-tale red plastic bags stuffed full of foliage.

Once the football is over, I plan to do the same. A friend in Sanaa has invited me for a quiet afternoon chew. Not something to tell the wife about.
That would be letting the qat out of the bag.

Yemen court to give verdict on 12 Qaeda suspects on Dec 11

Source: AFP, 28/11/2010
SANAA — A court in Yemen's southeastern province of Hadramawt is to announce its verdict on 12 Al-Qaeda suspects next month, the defence ministry's website reported on Saturday.
"Hadramawt's special criminal court set December 11 to announce the verdict on 12 people accused of belonging to Al-Qaeda," at a hearing on Saturday, the website 26sep.net said.

The defendants are charged with forming an armed group, planning attacks and procuring passports with the intention of using them to join Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia.
They have also been accused of sheltering Al-Qaeda militants from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, 26sept.net said in early October.

The suspects denied the charges against them, although a number of them did acknowledge having travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan, a judiciary official told AFP at the time.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, is battling an Al-Qaeda resurgence, sporadic Shiite rebellion in the north and separatist unrest in the south of the country.

Saudi Arabia Arrests 149 Qaeda Suspects, Many With Ties to Yemen, Over 8 Months

Source: New York Times, 27/11/2010 By ROBERT F. WORTH

CAIRO — Saudi Arabia announced Friday that it had arrested 149 suspected militants from Al Qaeda over the past eight months, including many with ties to Yemen.

The announcement came amid renewed global concerns about the terrorist group’s Yemen-based affiliate, which claimed responsibility for the effort last month to send explosives by package delivery companies to the United States. The affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has also said it plans to continue aiming at the United States with a new strategy of small attacks aimed primarily at damaging the financial system, rather than killing large numbers of civilians.

The recent arrests disrupted 19 Al Qaeda cells that had been raising money and recruiting members for attacks on Saudi government facilities, officials and journalists, said Gen. Mansour al-Turki, the chief spokesman of Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry. They included 124 Saudis and 25 people of other nationalities — Arabs, Africans and South Asians, he added.
Most cells were very small, were operating independently, and were in the early stages of planning attacks, he said.

Saudi authorities have announced large batches of arrests at regular intervals in the last few years. In March, they announced the capture of 113 Qaeda militants, including 52 Yemenis.
Saudi Arabia has developed a far more sophisticated counterterrorism program since 2003, when militants launched a string of deadly attacks inside the kingdom. In addition to expanded paramilitary units and surveillance systems, the program has included “soft” elements like a much heralded jihadist rehabilitation program and educational efforts.

The result is that many militants have fled to Yemen, where remote mountains and deserts, and the country’s conflict-ridden environment, make it easier to avoid detection. Al Qaeda’s Yemen affiliate has many Saudi members, and the group has made clear that it hopes to use Yemen as a base from which to overthrow the Saudi monarchy.

Yet jihadists clearly continue to operate inside Saudi Arabia, the homeland of 15 of the 19 hijackers in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Those recently arrested used the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, which ended last week, to raise funds and indoctrinate people, General Turki said.

Thomas Hegghammer, a research fellow at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, said, “We shouldn’t assume the jihadi scene in Saudi Arabia has gone away, even if most of these cells are being nipped in the bud.”

American and Israeli intelligence blamed for second car bomb against Al Houthi rebels

By Nasser Arrabyee/26/11/2010

The spokesman of Al Houthi rebels again accused the American and Israeli intelligence of being behind the suicide car bombing which killed at least two and injured 10 others of Al Houthi supporters on Friday in Sa’ada north of the country.

“The one who planned, financed, and implemented the Wednesday car bombing is the same one who did the attack of today,” the spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam told reporters.
The suicide car bombing of Wednesday killed more than 20 of Al Houthi supporters in the neighboring province of Al Jawf. Abdul Salam said American and Israeli intelligence were behind that attack.

Both suicide bombings targeted at least two prominent tribal leaders loyal to Al Houhti Shiite rebels in Al Jawf and Mareb where Al Qaeda is believed to be growing by recruiting unemployed sons of disgruntled tribesmen.

Both targeted tribal leaders, Abdullah Abdan, from Al Jawf, and Mubarak Al Mashan, from Mareb, survived in the two attacks.

The Yemeni government condemned both attacks saying they are against values of Islam, and values of freedom and democracy vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Earlier in the day, two people at least were killed and 10 other injured when a car bomb exploded in a convoy of tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi Shiite rebels on Friday in Sa’ada north of Yemen, said sources in the convoy.

The attack is the second of its kind against tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi in less than a week.
The suicide bomber was killed and his car and two others of the targeted convoy were destroyed in the terrorist attack.

About 40 cars with tribesmen on board from Mareb province under the leadership of sheikh Mubarak Al Mashan, were in their way to participate in the funeral of the spiritual leader of Al Houthi rebels, Badar Al Deen Al Houthi who died earlier this week.

The 86-year old Badr Al Deen, was the father of the current leader of Shiite rebels, Abdul Malik Al Houthi.

Mubarak Al Mashan, a tribal leader from Jihm tribe of Mareb, escaped the attack because he was not in his car which was destroyed by the car bomb, other sources said.
The attack took place in Al Saifi area , between Al Taleh and Dhahyan in Sa’ada province.

Two days earlier, a car bomb targeted a convoy of tribesmen from Al Jawf province in their way to celebrate the Shiite day Al Ghadeer killing about 20 of them.

Islam's Billy Graham takes on Al Qaeda

Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled joins Yemeni government in huge media campaign to counter Al Qaeda.
Source: Global Post, By Tom Finn

Egyptian Islamic preacher Amr Khaled at a press conference in Cairo in 2006. Khaled is helping the Yemeni government counter Al Qaeda's rising influence. (Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images) ADEN, Yemen – Marking a shift in strategy, the Yemeni government has launched a coordinated media campaign aimed at countering the message of an increasingly active Al Qaeda offshoot, recruiting one of the Arab world’s most popular televangelists in the process.

Amr Khaled, a charismatic and moderate Egyptian preacher, is known as the Arab world’s Billy Graham. Khaled, together with the Yemeni government and numerous local media outlets, this week launched a full-scale media blitz to protect the country’s large, and often disenfranchised, population of young people from Al Qaeda’s extremist ideology.

“The purpose of this project is to uproot extremism and spread moderation, to show the true face of Islam, and show a bright picture of Yemen to the world," Khaled said at the campaign's opening ceremony here in the southern port city of Aden.

An entourage of icons from the world of Islamic preaching will also embark on an extended media campaign over the next few weeks, delivering a string of speeches propagated through Yemen’s media outlets, forums, websites, mosque pulpits and television channels.

Today in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, Khaled is scheduled to deliver a sermon to about 30,000 people at the city’s largest mosque.

The campaign represents a shift in the Yemeni government's ongoing fight against the country’s Al Qaeda branch, known as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. Until recently the government has favored a military strategy, which has seen little success against a particularly sophisticated Al Qaeda group that has developed its own robust propaganda campaign.

“Yemenis need to be convinced that AQAP is bad for them and bad for Yemen. But at the moment Al Qaeda is the only one doing the arguing. It puts out statement after statement that depicts the group as some sort of Islamic Robin Hood defending Yemen's oppressed and weak people against western military attacks,” said Gregory Johnson, an expert on Yemen at Princeton University.

“While largely unnoticed in Washington, these unchallenged and baseless claims are carrying the day in Yemen’s hinterlands,” Johnson added.

While Khaled’s sermons have done well in Egpyt, there is concern that the televangelist’s charm might not resonate as well in Yemen, a country with no sizable middle class – his usual base of support.

“Gathering the moderates is a good idea, but what about the hundreds of more radical clerics who won't be participating in the program?” said Abdullah Al-Faqih, a professor of political science at Sanaa University. “They're the ones we should be worrying about.”

Khaled, however, remains confident.

"We have a long experience in confronting intellectual and behavioral deviations of Arab youth. With Yemen's youth on our side we will be capable, God willing, of managing this project so that the great land of Yemen regains its bright, moderate image," he said in an interview.

Khaled has fashioned himself into the anti-Osama bin Laden, using the barrier-breaking power of satellite television and the internet in his attempts to turn around a generation of lost Muslim youth.

He defies the stereotype of the Islamic preacher. He trades clerical robes for a sharp suit and his slickly delivered sermons, known for referencing popular topics like soccer and the internet, have helped earn him vast popularity in Egypt, especially among young people.

Forty-six percent of Yemen’s population is under 16 years old, many of whom are poor and thought to be susceptible to Al Qaeda’s rhetoric. Five thousand young Yemenis have so far volunteered to contribute to the country’s media campaign, two hundred of which will work with Khaled and his U.K.-based organization to establish youth projects that confront extremism.

“We wish to establish a public movement that is self-assembled by Yemeni youth to confront extremism,” Khaled said. “Our campaign will have delegates confronting extremism in every city and governorate in Yemen.”

Two killed, 10 injured in fresh car bomb against Al Houthi supporters

By Nasser Arrabyee/26/11/2010

Two people at least were killed and 10 other injured when a car bomb exploded in a convoy of tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi Shiite rebels on Friday in Sa’ada north of Yemen, said sources in the convoy.

The attack is the second of its kind (car bomb) against tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi in less than week.

The suicide bomber was killed and his car and two others of the targeted convoy were destroyed in the terrorist attack.

About 40 cars with tribesmen on board from Mareb province under the leadership of sheikh Mubarak Al Mashan, were in their way to participate in a funeral of the spiritual leader of Al Houthi rebels, 86- year old Badar Al Deen Al Houthi who died earlier this week.

Mubarak Al Mashan, a tribal leader from Jihm tribe of Mareb, escaped the attack because he was not in his car which was destroyed by the car bomb, other sources said.
The attack took place in Al Saifi area , between Al Taleh and Dhahyan in Sa’ada province.

Two days earlier, a car bomb targeted a convoy of tribesmen from Al Jawf province in their way to celebrate the Shiite day Al Ghadeer killing about 20 of them.

Second car bomb targets Al Houthi supporters in Sa’ada

By Nasser Arrabyee/26/11/2010
A car bomb exploded in a convoy of tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi Shiite rebels early Friday in Sa’ada north of Yemen, said sources in the convoy. The second car bomb against tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi in less than week.

The suicide bomber was killed and his car and two others of the targeted convoy were destroyed in the terrorist attack. Several people were killed and injured, the sources said.
About 40 cars with tribesmen from Mareb province under the leadership of Mubarak Al Mashan, were in their way to participate in a funeral of the spiritual leader of Al Houthi rebels Badar Al Deen Al Houthi who died this week.

Mubarak Al Mashan, a tribal leader from Jihm tribe of Mareb, escaped the attack because he was not in his car which was destroyed by the car bomb. The attack took place in Al Saifi in Sa’ada province.

Again civilians flee violence in northern Yemen to Saudi Arabia

Source: IRIN, 25/11/2010
Amran-Yemen-Escalating fighting between Houthi-led Shia rebels and pro-government militia in Yemen’s remote northwestern districts of Qutabir and Monabih has forced dozens of families across the border into Saudi Arabia, according to local officials.

"As a result of recurrent clashes between Houthis and tribesmen supporting the government, dozens of families from our district infiltrated over the past three days into the southern region of the kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] in search of safety and better living conditions,” Mohammed Hatabah, a local council member from Qutabir district, in the Saada governorate, told IRIN.
He said some of the families had only just returned home to Saada after several months in displaced persons camps, or among host communities, following last year’s heavy fighting between government forces and Houthi rebels.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on 23 November it was in the process of dispatching a team from its regional office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, “to establish the numbers and assess needs" of those who have managed to cross the border.

Since a ceasefire was announced in mid-February 2010, sporadic fighting between Houthi forces and pro-government tribes has broken out across the Saada governorate and in the northern part of Amran governorate.

Refoulement of refugees

Abdurrahman Dalman, a human rights activist from Saada, told IRIN that over the past few weeks several families had tried to enter Saudi Arabia, but had been forced back by Saudi border guards.

According to Dalman, the Saudi authorities were taking a hard line because of the increasing number of illegal Yemeni immigrants in the country, and security fears following an incursion by Houthi fighters during the 2009 conflict, which resulted in cross-border retaliation by the Saudi army.
"Many of these immigrants work as beggars in main cities of the kingdom, which is not permissible there. The other thing is that Houthi fighters attacked Saudi troops from deserted homes in [Saudi] territory, which were once occupied by displaced Yemeni civilians," he said.

There have been six rounds of fighting between Yemen's security forces and Houthi rebels since 2004. The last round, in August 2009, was the fiercest, displacing more than 300,000 civilians.

Human Rights Watch reported that during the sixth round, Saudi Arabia committed refoulement (unlawful forced return to persecution or a situation threatening life or freedom) of Yemeni refugees by preventing them from crossing into Saudi Arabia at border crossings and by deporting those who managed to cross the long and porous border undetected.

The Houthi movement draws its support from the Zaydi Shiite population in northern Yemen. They demand autonomy as a response to their perceived marginalization, and in protest over the influence of the United States and Saudi Arabia on government policy.
Tensions have building since the February ceasefire over the slow implementation of six conditions set by the government.

They include the dismantling of roadblocks and withdrawal of Houthi fighters from positions in the mountains; freedom of movement for government officials; the return of captured Saudi and Yemeni military equipment; the release of all military and civilian prisoners; adherence to the rule of law; and the end of incursions into Saudi territory.
The Houthis argue that an exchange of prisoners was part of the ceasefire deal but the government had reneged on this, and they accuse the authorities of waging a proxy war through pro-government tribesmen.

A fugitive in Yemen, the billionaire's son wanted for murder

Source: Indpendent , By Terri Judd, 25/11/2010

Details of Norwegian socialite's death emerge.

London- The grieving father of a student who was raped and murdered pleaded with her suspected killer to give himself up yesterday, berating the absurd situation that allowed the man to live in luxury beyond the reach of the law.

Farouk Abdulhak, a billionaire's son, fled the UK the day Martine Vik Magnussen disappeared. By the time her semi-naked body was found under a pile of rubble in his block of flats in London, Abdulhak, 21, was believed to be under the protection of his powerful Yemeni family. Despite a European arrest warrant having been issued, Yemen refuses to extradite him.

Yesterday Odd Petter Magnussen listened as Westminster Coroner's Court heard how his 23-year-old daughter had struggled to fight off her attacker but was eventually strangled or smothered to death.

The young Norwegian had been celebrating the end of her exams at Maddox, a Mayfair nightclub, when she left with Mr Abdulhak, a fellow student at Regent's Business School, in the early hours of 14 March 2008. When she failed to return home, friends alerted the police who found items of her clothing in Mr Abdulhak's West End flat and broke into a padlocked basement two days later.

Dr Nathaniel Carey, a forensic pathologist, said there were at least 43 cuts and grazes to several areas of the young woman's body, including 10 to her head, face and neck, which indicated she had tried to fight off her attacker but had been killed by compression to the neck. Dr Carey added she was probably mildly drunk and there was evidence of semen and recent "light usage" of cocaine.

"Many of [the wounds] were typical of assault-type injuries or those received in a struggle," said the pathologist. Within hours of Ms Magnussen's disappearance Mr Abdulhak had flown to Egypt, where it is believed he took his father's private jet to Yemen. The son of one of the most powerful businessmen in the country, Shaher Abdulhak, he is understood to be living amidst tight security at a family holiday home in the village of Thaba Abous in southern Yemen.

Detective Inspector Richard Ambrose told the inquest a European arrest warrant remained outstanding as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office worked on the case: "Papers went to the Crown Prosecution Service and it was their opinion that there is sufficient evidence to charge this man with murder and rape. But the upshot is, whether Abdulhak returns or not is purely his choice, and he chooses not to."

As the coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing, Mr Magnussen appealed to Abdulhak to give himself up. The father, who has described his extrovert daughter as "pure sunshine", added: "This really shows the absurd situation that surrounds this case. We have a suspect that has fled to a country where he is untouchable.

There is no way, unless he puts himself forward for the British legal authorities, that he will have to take some responsibility for these actions."

Ms Magnussen's family is considering whether to bring a civil compensation case against the Abdulhak family for damages

The car bomb attack was by Al Qaeda who revenged for five men kidnapped by Al Houthirebels, tribal leader says

By Nasser Arrabyee/24/11/2010

A Yemeni tribal leader said that Al Qaeda was behind the suicide car bombing which killed more than 20 tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi Shiite rebels early Wednesday in eastern province of Al Jawf.

Al Qaeda has taken revenge for five men of its members who were arrested by Al Houthi rebels in a check point in the areas under their control earlier this year, according to the tribal leader who asked not to be named.

The tribal leader said, last August Al Houthi rebels had arrested five Al Qaeda suspects including Ali Hussein Abdullah Al Tais, originally from Sa’ada, who was released from Guantanamo. They were handed to the government.

“They were handed first to leader of Al Houthis in Zaher area (Al Jawf), Abu Saleh, who handed them to the government,” the tribal leader said over phone from Al Matoon, the area where suicide bombing took place this morning.

Few weeks before the suicide bombing of today, a statement attributed to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was distributed in Al Jawf areas warning from cooperating with Al Houthi rebels.

AQAP said in the statement that Al Houthi rebels are agents with the Shiite Iran, and that they are the enemies of Muslims and not the enemies of America and Israel as they claim in their slogans.

On his part, the spokesmen of Al Houthis Mohammed Abdul Salam said in the evening of Wednesday that American and Israeli intelligence were behind the suicide car bombing in Al Jawf, after he declined to accuse any one immediately after the attack.

The Yemeni government condemned the attack in a statement describing it contradictory to values of Islam and values of freedom and democracy.

Earlier in the day, at least 23 tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi Shiite rebels were killed and about 30 injured when a suicide bomber, believed to be Al Qaeda member, exploded his car in a big procession of cars with hundreds of tribesmen on board in Al Metoon area eastern province of Al Jawf.

The tribesmen were in their way to celebrate the Shiite day of Al Ghadeer, in Zaher district north of the Al Jawf, close to Sa’ada.

Two local sources from Al Jawf and Mareb said Al Qaeda was likely behind the attack. Al Qaeda affiliates believe that celebration of Al Ghadeer is not Islamic. “Al Qaeda repeatedly issued fatwas that Al Ghadeer is ‘Bedah’, not truly Islamic occasion to celebrate.

Al Ghadeer is a day celebrated annually by Shiite Islam to commemorate the day when the Prophet Mohammed, announced that Ali bin Abi Taleb would be his successor when he dies, as Shiite believe.

The sources said 18 bodies were identified and others are still unknown.
Two tribal leaders loyal to Al Houthi rebels were killed in the attack: Hussein Hadhban and two sons of Sheikh Abdullah Abdan.

The car bomb targeted the car of Sheikh Abdullah Abdan but he survived because he was not in the car, the sources said.

The celebration was not taken place as every one in the area was busy with the deaths and injuries.

The spokesman of Al Houthi rebels, Mohammed Abdul Salam said in press statements that 15 were killed and 30 others injured in the attack.

Earlier this year, tribesmen from Mareb province where Al Qaeda is believed to be hiding, under the leadership of the tribal leader Qasem Al Mashan announced their loyalty to the rebels leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi.

Before the attack, the spokesman of Al Houthi rebels Mohammed Abdul Salam, said that security forces were quiet and helpful with them while they were celebrating the eve of Al Ghadeer day.

Al Houthi Shiite rebels celebrated the eve of Tuesday by setting fires to tyres and fire to air almost all night. In a statement issued by their leader, the rebels were told to save their bullets for hard times and not waste them by firing to air.

Al Qaeda behind suicide bombing against Shiite in Yemen, local sources

By Nasser Arrabyee/24/11/2010

At least 23 tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi Shiite rebels were killed and about 30 injured when a suicide bomber, believed to be Al Qaeda member, exploded his car in a big procession of cars with hundreds of tribesmen on board in Al Metoon area eastern province of Al Jawf.

The tribesmen were in their way to celebrate the Shiite day of Al Ghadeer, in Zaher district north of the Al Jawf, close to Sa’ada.

Two local sources from Al Jawf and Mareb said Al Qaeda was likely behind the attack, Al Qaeda affiliates believe that celebration of Al Ghadeer is not Islamic. The sources said Al Qaeda repeatedly issued fatwas that Al Ghadeer is ‘Bedah’, not truly Islamic occasion to celebrate.

Al Ghadeer is a day celebrated annually by Shiite Islam to commemorate the day when the Prophet Mohammed, announced that Ali bin Abi Taleb would be his successor when he dies, as Shiite believe.

The sources said 18 bodies were identified and others are still unknown.
Two tribal leaders loyal to Al Houthi rebels were killed in the attack: Hussein Hadhban and two sons of Sheikh Abdullah Abdan.

The car bomb targeted the car of Sheikh Abdullah Abdan but he survived because he was not in the car, the sources said.

The celebration was not taken place as every one in the area was busy with the deaths and injuries.
The spokesman of Al Houthi rebels, Mohammed Abdul Salam said in press statements that 15 were killed and 30 others injured in the attack.

Earlier this year, tribesmen from Mareb province where Al Qaeda is believed to be hiding, under the leadership of the tribal leader Qasem Al Mashan announced their loyalty to the rebels leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi.

Before the attack, the spokesman of Al Houthi rebels Mohammed Abdul Salam, said that security forces were quiet and helpful with them while they were celebrating the eve of Al Ghadeer day.

Al Houthi Shiite rebels celebrated the eve of Tuesday by setting fires to tyres and fire to air almost all night. In a statement issued by their leader, the rebels were told to save their bullets for hard times and not waste them by firing to air.

Car bomb in Yemen kills 15 in Shitte ceremony

Bomb struck a religious procession in an area of north Yemen where Shiite rebels have been active.
Source: AFP, 24/11/2010
Sanaa: A car bomb struck a religious procession in an area of north Yemen where Shiite rebels have been active, killing 15 people on Wednesday, a rebel spokesman told AFP.

"Fifteen people were killed and 30 others wounded in the car bombing that targeted a Shiite procession in Al Jawf province," rebel spokesman Mohammad Abdulsalam told AFP by telephone.

Abdulsalam said the attack targeted Shiites who were preparing to mark Al Ghadeer, the day on which Shiites commemorate the annointment of Ali, one of the key figures of their faith.

The anniversary has long been a source of contention between the Sunni and Shiite branches of the faith.
The rebel spokesman did not rule out that the attack could have been a suicide bombing.

Beware of Cleric in Yemen

Source: New York Time, 24/11/2010
To the Editor:
Re “A False Target in Yemen”
Gregory Johnsen argues that the Obama administration is too concerned with Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born, Yemeni-based cleric associated with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. But by focusing on Mr. Awlaki’s status within the group, Mr. Johnsen misses the cleric’s significance to global Islamist terrorism.

True, Mr. Awlaki is not a seasoned operator or a noted religious thinker. But his caustic, politically oriented, English-language online lectures have driven some Muslims living in the United States and Europe to embrace Al Qaeda’s perverted ideology and to plot murderous acts.
While the overwhelming majority of Muslims reject this construct, we should not underestimate Mr. Awlaki’s larger importance. United States policy must continue to recognize that he is no mere “midlevel religious functionary,” as Mr. Johnsen argues, but rather the latest spokesman for Al Qaeda’s fringe narrative of a war between the West and Islam.
Rick NelsonWashington, Nov. 22, 2010

The writer is director of the Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

Strangled student's family seek fugitive extradition from Yemen

Source: UKPA, 23/11/2010

The family of Norwegian student Martine Vik Magnussen who was murdered in central London have said they hope an inquest will help flush the prime suspect from his overseas hideout.
Dr Paul Knapman will hold a full inquest into the 23-year-old's death at Westminster Coroner's Court tomorrow morning.

Her father, Odd Petter Magnussen, has travelled to London to give evidence as part of his campaign to bring the only suspect to justice. Billionaire playboy Farouk Abdulhak, 23, remains in hiding in a remote village in Yemen which will not extradite its citizens.

Marcus Rolandsen, who heads the Justice for Martine campaign, said Mr Magnussen wants to keep his daughter's murder in the public spotlight.

He said: "We hope the inquest will help. For all our sake we really want Abdulhak to be tried in the British justice system. However, since there have been difficulties in obtaining the suspect we have also tried to follow different lines in order to win through.

"It is another sad milestone in a terrible situation. Even though the legal system is one way to solve this, we need to make sure it is not forgotten. We have reason to believe they hope if they stay out of the limelight long enough this case will disappear. We want to send a clear signal this will not disappear, on the contrary, the more time they spend avoiding justice the more pressure will be put on them."

Miss Magnussen was raped and strangled after a night out in Mayfair with friends from Regent's Business School on March 14, 2008. Her semi-naked body was found partially buried in rubble in the basement of Abdulhak's block of flats in Great Portland Street two days later.

Abdulhak, whose father is billionaire businessman Shaher Abdulhak, founder of Shaher Trading, fled the country via Egypt. He is now believed to be in hiding in a large holiday property protected by armed guards in the remote village of Thaba Abous in southern Yemen. The Metropolitan Police later named him in connection with the murder after finding forensic evidence at the scene and added him to its most wanted list.

Miss Magnussen's family have called for the Governments in Norway and Britain to put more pressure on the Yemeni authorities to extradite the suspect. They are considering whether to bring a civil compensation case against the Abdulhak family for damages. Campaigners said the case has highlighted a wider issue of how violent offenders are still able to seek refuge from justice in some countries.The inquest is expected to hear from pathologist Dr Nathaniel Carey, Detective Inspector Richard Ambrose and Mr Magnussen.

Would western military intervention rescue Yemen from chaos ?

Source: The Wall Street Journal , By GEORGE GRANT
23/11/2010
(Yemen on the Brink
Military intervention by the West may be the only way to prevent a descent into chaos)

Yemen is a country on the brink. It is confronted by two unremitting insurgencies, and that's even before you take into account al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the organization allegedly responsible for last month's failed bomb attempts.

The country faces a food crisis, a water crisis and a poverty crisis, problems that are all compounded by the influx of thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn Somalia each year from across the Gulf of Aden. The government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh is unpopular and weak. Its limited resources and still more limited competencies are further compromised by rampant corruption, with Transparency International ranking Yemen 146th out of 178 in its most recent corruption-perceptions index.

This cocktail of insecurity, underdevelopment and poor governance provides fertile ground for extremist organizations such as AQAP.

Like their co-ideologues in Somalia, Afghanistan and elsewhere, AQAP would like the world to believe that all of its members are driven by pure conviction. However, analyses by experts based inside and outside Yemen, and my own work on Islamism in underdeveloped conflict zones, strongly suggest that though an ideological hardcore does exist, it is poverty, insecurity, and resentment of the extant authorities that drive so many ordinary Muslims to support AQAP. These circumstances have allowed Islamists in countries such as Yemen to persuade large numbers of their co-religionists that their brutal and utterly retrograde Quranic interpretation offers a plausible solution for their failing societies.

The reality as envisaged by Islamists is of course quite different, and involves stoning women, punishing even the most trivial offense with mutilation, and murdering anyone—whether Muslim or not—who tries to stand in their way. Having actually endured an Islamist government between 1994 and 2001, the people of Afghanistan know this only too well. This is why—contrary to popular misperception—some 90% of Afghans would prefer their current government to a return to Taliban rule, according to a recent BBC poll.

What enables AQAP to proliferate is not so much the desirability of its message, but the profound undesirability of the status quo, and a belief in large swathes of Yemeni society that the government is incapable of ameliorating their country's problems.

If Britain and its international partners are serious about helping Yemen to deal with its AQAP threat, then it is to the fields of governance, security and development that they must turn their attention. But their focus thus far has been almost exclusively on more stringent controls on flights out of Yemen, as well as hunting down terrorists within Yemen itself. Though necessary in the short term, this approach on its own will not solve the problem, since it deals only with the symptom and not the cause.

The British government's new National Security Strategy explicitly acknowledges the interrelationship between poor governance, underdevelopment and insecurity, and how these three malaises feed into support for extremism. The strategy also rightly recognizes that pre-emption is a far more desirable and cost-effective way of dealing with a problem than the more traditional British strategy, which is to wait until a crisis has reached such endemic proportions that action becomes unavoidable.

There is every possibility that, if left to its own devices, Yemen could be just such a catastrophe: another failed state in a region already riddled with poverty, insecurity and extremism.

Britain has learned the hard way in Afghanistan that any attempt to deal with terrorism that does not address these underlying factors will fail. The course of operations between 2001 and 2005, which focused almost exclusively on the elimination of terrorists without seeking to eliminate the conditions that gave rise to and sustained them in the first place, was a textbook example of how not to deal with this issue. Thankfully, the strategy now in place is quite different and does, for the first time, seem to be yielding genuine progress.

For now, Britain and its international partners need to focus on helping Yemen's leaders improve the quality of their governance, as well as lending a hand in developing the country's economic and security infrastructure. Financial assistance alone will not be enough; in a country bereft of professional expertise, Yemen also requires significant technical support.

However, if the Yemeni authorities prove incapable of delivering in these areas due to the country's instability, then the international community cannot rule out military intervention in a stabilization capacity, with the aim of giving the government space to develop its capabilities and deal with these problems independently.

The reality is that poor governance, underdevelopment and insecurity are interrelated. If progress in one of these areas is absent, then progress in the other two becomes immeasurably more difficult. In Yemen's case, the security dimension is particularly severe, and it is not unlikely that the Yemeni government will be incapable of dealing with it without some form of international assistance.

General David Richards, the head of Britain's armed forces, warned this month that the U.K. could not rule out military intervention in Yemen as a last resort—a highly unpalatable prospect given Britain's present financial and strategic climate. That it was unpalatable, however, did not stop it from being correct.

Mr. Grant is the Global Security and Terrorism director at London's Henry Jackson Society, and the author of "Succeeding in Afghanistan," a report published this year by the Society.

The Gulf needs stable Yemen, say Arab parliamentary leaders

Source: The UAE-based National, by Kareem Shaheen
23/11/2010

ABU DHABI- Failing to tackle terrorism in Yemen could lead to instability in the Gulf, a top Arab parliamentarian warned yesterday.

Noureddine Bouchkouj, the secretary general of the Arab Parliamentary Union, urged the Arab world, especially the GCC, to assist Yemen immediately with development, financial and military aid to curb the terrorist threats it faces.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a major GCC gathering in Abu Dhabi at which Gulf parliamentary leaders stressed their commitment to the country ahead of the GCC summit next month . Supporting the peace process in Yemen and fighting terrorism were crucial to the region, they said.

The Gulf countries are going ahead with the plan to hold a football competition, the Gulf Cup, in Yemen despite worries that it could be the target of a terrorist attack. Thirty thousand Yemeni troops have been called in to help secure the competition.

"Yemen is facing a major conspiracy that can impact its unity and stability," warned Mr Bouchkouj.

"If Yemen's stability is affected, the stability of the entire Gulf region is in danger."
"The Arab countries now must move before it is too late," he said. "It is a situation that obliges [Yemen's] brethren to move to assist it," he said.

"The Gulf countries have a big role to play for the benefit of Yemen, because Yemen is part of this region geographically and it has to be part of it politically and economically as well.
"The Arab countries, and the Gulf countries in particular, have to provide Yemen with all forms of aid to strengthen its security and stability," he added.

Gulf parliaments had a major role to play in raising awareness of the situation in Yemen as problems there could be a forerunner of instability elsewhere in the region, he said.

"Yemen today is in danger and we have to stand by it and not just watch and feel sorry for it," he said.

The desire for stability and support for Yemen was echoed by other officials attending the meeting.

In a joint statement, the speakers of the GCC's parliaments said they were "worried" about international terrorism and the latest techniques being used by terrorists. They cited the cargo bomb plots uncovered earlier this month, warning the attempted attacks could indicate the threat from terrorism was on the rise.

Tips from Saudi Arabian intelligence allowed police in Dubai and London to intercept the two cargo bombs bound for the US, which some officials said were intended to detonate mid-flight. The packages originated in Yemen, and al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility.

The speakers said they were hopeful that Yemen would be able to "destroy" such terrorist activities on its lands.

Arab unity was needed to increase security in the region, said Amal al Qubaisi, a member of the UAE FNC's foreign affairs committee.

"Yemen's stability is important as a brotherly [Arab] nation," she said.
"It is even more important because of our neighbourly relations and to avoid exporting terrorism or extremism," she said.

The role of Gulf countries was to join with Yemen in fighting terrorism, said Abdul Rahman al Atiyyah, the secretary general of the GCC.

That role included "stressing Yemen's stability and unity and the prosperity of its people, and standing with them in fighting terrorism and anything that harms security", he said.

There were many development plans that GCC countries were working on with Yemen, he said, and Yemen was increasingly involved in GCC initiatives and organisations, including health and education projects.

"Yemen is a neighbouring country and its security and stability is vital," said Abdulaziz al Ghurair, the speaker of the FNC, who chaired the meeting. "We support our brothers in Yemen because it is a neighbouring country and it affects us."

Mr al Ghurair expressed hope that the Gulf countries could play a positive role in making Yemen more peaceful.

Gulf parliaments could promote Yemen's cause in the international arena and garner support for the country around the world in its attempt to promote peace internally, he said

Yemen's government has been criticised for failing to curb threats of terrorism from al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Yemen forces block protests around Gulf Cup launch

Source: AFP. 23/11/2010
ADEN, Yemen — A huge Yemeni police presence blocked southern protesters from entering the region's main city Aden on Monday ahead of the launch of the Gulf Cup football tournament.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh was joined at the opening ceremony by his visiting Ethiopian and Djiboutian counterparts.

Police were deployed on all the city's main thoroughfares as well as around the stadium and team hotels ahead of the opening game between the hosts and oil-rich neighbour Saudi Arabia, AFP correspondents said.

Troops blocked hundreds of supporters of the Southern Movement, a coalition of autonomist and pro-independence groups, from entering the city from neighbouring Daleh province, a major centre for protests in recent months, security sources said.

Southern Movement sources said that troops posted in the town of Anad, some 65 kilometres (40 miles) north of Aden, opened fire on demonstrators carrying flags of the formerly independent south.

They also carried pictures of the leaders of the seven countries competing against Yemen in the two-week tournament -- Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Southern Movement had called on its supporters to demonstrate during the event, which continues until December 5.

The authorities have mobilised some 30,000 police to provide security for the visiting teams and fans, the tournament's security chief General Saleh Zawara said on Sunday.
It is the first time that the Arab world's poorest country has staged the tournament since its launch in 1970.

The authorities have been at pains to reassure participating countries that the security forces are able to deal with the threat of disruption by the Southern Movement as well as a growing Al-Qaeda presence in the region.

Gulf soccer cup opened in Yemen

By Nasser Arrabyee/22/11/2010
The Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh opened late Monday the regional football tournament, Gulf 20, in the southern city of Aden. The presidents of Eretria and Djibouti and a number of high profile officials from the Gulf countries attended the one-hour opening ceremony.

About one thousand men and women song and danced in the opening ceremony which was held in the Stadium of May 22 which is large enough for about 30,000 persons. About 8 % of the space of the Stadium was allocated for fans from Saudi Arabia who came to support their team.
Organizers estimated the number of fans who stayed outside after the stadium was filled at more than 25,000 persons. Security measures were extremely tightened in, around, and outside the city of Aden.

Earlier, the Yemeni government said Sunday that Al Qaeda and the southern separatist movement do their best to foil football tournament.

In a statement issued by the local authority in Aden, the local government said that “dark and terrorist elements from Al Qaeda separatists against unity and Yemen’s stability” were behind spreading rumors and fake allegations that Gulf 20 will be an occasion for drinking liquors and allowing men and women dancing together during the opening of the sporting event.
The statement said such allegations were untrue and baseless.

Earlier, a group of clerics issued a statement in which they expressed their concerns that the Gulf 20 would an occasion for dancing and drinking.

The Aden local government urged the clerics who issued the statement and all other elites, to do their best to make the Gulf 20 a success and not to listen to rumors of the enemies of Yemen from Al Qaeda and separatists.

Yemen and the six Gulf countries and Iraq will start Monday November 22, 2010 a football championship amid suspense and fear of any possible violent acts to foil the event.
The sporting event, the Gulf 20, would be held in Yemen for the first time since Yemen joined the GCC sports institutions in 2003.

Such a sporting event comes after a big controversy and arguments not only in Yemen and GCC but also in the world over holding or not holding it in a country which faces security challenges.
Participating teams from all the six GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation Council) and Iraq arrived in Aden on Saturday and Sunday after leaders of their countries agreed to hold the tournament in Yemen despite internal objections in almost the six Gulf countries.

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and majority of the State’s officials, including vice president and prime minister and defense and interior minister, have been in Aden doing their best around the clock during the Eid holiday for checking the final arrangements for such an event which became more political than sporting.

The Yemeni government spent about 560 million dollars on new sporting facilities like Stadiums and others in the two southern cities of Aden and Abyan where the event would held from November 22nd, to December 5th.

New five star-hotels were established by Yemeni and Arab investors for the same purpose.
Thousands of cheers from the GCC countries have already arrived to the beautiful coastal city of Aden to spend Eid Al Adha holiday and support their teams.

Yemen participated in Gulf 16, Gulf 17, Gulf 18, and Gulf 19, before it hosted the Gulf 20.
Yemen ranked the last in all the previous championships.

Now, people in Yemen do not care too much about their team winning, but they care much about their country’s ability to hold the championship without any violence.
In attempt to foil the sporting event, the separatist southern movement threatened to organize anti-unity demonstrations during the period of playing.

The Minister of sporting Hamoud Obad commented on their threats by saying “It’s fake threats, like fireworks, and they are less patriotic than the Mafya of South Africa who supported the world cup.”

The separatist movement, disgruntled groups calling for separating the south from the north which united in 1990, because they say they are politically marginalized, are trying to do their best to foil the championship.

A group outside the country led by the former President of the south Ali Salem Al Baidh, is supporting the internal separatist movement to foil the Gulf 20, which would show that Yemen is not as bad as portrayed by media, if successfully held.
Obviously, the Yemeni officials topped by President Saleh are not sparing any political or financial efforts to show the their neighbors (GCC) and the world that Yemen is not as bad as they think.
More than 30,000 soldiers were already deployed in and around the city of Aden and along the road from Aden to the stadium of Abyan. More than this number will be in civil clothes to help the secret police to control any attempt to disturb the event.
And because Al Qaeda is more active in the south, there is also some fears of any possible attacks by Al Qaeda operatives who always exploit the increasing tension between the government and the separatist movement.
The moderate Egyptian cleric Amr Khaled will be implementing an anti-Al Qaeda campaign in Aden and Sana’a during the Gulf 20 football championship.
The campaign, called the battle of minds and hearts against Al Qaeda, will be opened by President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Tuesday November 23, in Aden and on 25 in Sana’a.
The moderate preacher who has a lot of fans in Yemen, will target the young people in Yemen convincing them that Al Qaeda thoughts are not Islamic. The campaign is organized by the Right Start Foundation, chaired by Amer Khaled, in cooperation with the Yemeni government.

In Yemen, a barefaced advocate for women's rights

Source: Los Angeles Times , By Jeffrey Fleishman, 22/11/2010
Reporting from Sana, Yemen — The unveiled one enters.

Amal Basha runs the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights, which lobbies for human rights and wider political freedoms. It is a bold role for a woman in the rigid, tribal society, even more so for one who forgoes the veil.

That's what you notice first when Amal Basha, black hair flowing, hurries into the room, deploying sentences like poetic armies. She mentions that she's just returned from a human rights conference and is on her way to a seminar against torture. A man slides a tray before her and disappears.

Tea? Coffee? A cigarette?
A story?
"I had to wear the full niqab when I was 8 years old," she says of the face veil worn by women here. "I couldn't breathe. I saw the world in dark colors. I fell down because I couldn't see when I walked. Men should put this on for one day. They would change their thinking. They don't know how horrible it is under sun, heat and sweat. It's a kind of torture. I decided I wanted to see the beautiful colors of life — red, blue, green. Not black."

Papers shuffle. She looks for something, pushes the pile aside, clicks her lighter, a wisp of smoke. Where were we? Islamic fundamentalists sanctioning child brides and turning women into opaque cut-outs billowing through towns and villages, denied good educations, healthcare and seats at the tables of power.

"Violations on many levels.... Now they even want to put niqabs on our voices. They make it a shame for women to protest. They want us to lower the tune, not to be heard."

A cool morning breeze blows through the window. A man saws wood in an alley. Footsteps pass.

A descendant of the prophet Muhammad, Basha fixes her shawl beneath a reproduction of the Last Supper, the meticulous light of the Renaissance set against the harsh desert and mountain rhythms of Yemen. Incongruities are part of the mystique of the woman who heads the Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights, which lobbies for the rights of women, prisoners and refugees and for wider political freedoms.

Basha's is a stinging voice in a country steeped in tribal traditions, religious rigidity and a government with a deep repressive streak. She has received threats, been sprayed in the face with an unknown liquid and once discovered that a brake line in her car had been cut. She is unabashed, a cross between eloquent lawyer and street fighter, arguing and then, between breaths, slipping in a phrase you didn't see coming: "You know, we're all created from the same soul."

Yemen has emerged in the world's consciousness as a haven for Al Qaeda, a nation with firefights in the hinterlands, ambushes in the capital and men making package bombs. But Basha says her country, the poorest in the Arab region, suffers more intractable threats, such as corruption and her estimate that eight women die a day of abuse, medical problems and complications stemming from forced childhood marriages.

In April, a 12-year-old bride died of internal bleeding after intercourse with a husband more than twice her age. That case and one of another 12-year-old who died in September while giving birth hardened the divide in the government between those wanting to outlaw child marriages and clerics and religious conservative legislators who support the practice.

The ordeals thousands of young girls here face gained international attention in 2008, when 10-year-old Nujood Ali appeared before a judge and demanded a divorce from her husband, who was reportedly in his 30s.

Basha knows well what led Ali up the courthouse steps. She herself was 8 when her family arranged her marriage, part of an intricate web of customs draped over a girl in that gasp between playgrounds and puberty. She was wed at 16.

"The day after my marriage, I went to school to play soccer," she says. "I did not feel I was a woman. It was not time to play the wife. I didn't feel that I was this mother to come. When I was 17, I had a baby and I divorced my husband. I couldn't stand being a wife. I thought of how it would hurt my education. My mother raised my new son. That's how it is in an extended family."

Women are being "left behind," she says. "Girls are deprived of education and by the time they're 25, they've had seven or eight children."

Basha's defiance was sharpened during her student years at the American University in Cairo, where activism ranged from human rights to pan-Arabism, the failed dream of uniting Arab states championed by former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. She returned to Yemen labeled a troublemaker, an "agent of the West" and other slurs that kept her from joining the Foreign Ministry and becoming a diplomat.

Her second husband was an Arab nationalist. He died of a heart attack in 1998 and her political enemies, who referred to her as a Zionist sympathizer, spread rumors that she had poisoned him. Basha later married a lawyer and now the 48-year-old mother of three spends much of her time traveling to conferences. The title of her autobiography could be, "I cannot accept to be unnoticed," a phrase she uttered before mentioning that women are still paying for the sins of the temptress Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Redemption is unlikely soon. Yemen's parliament is a man's domain of suits, tribal dress and daggers. Out of 301 seats, one is held by a woman, despite a quota that allots women 15% of the chamber. Women face entrenched discrimination: Nearly 70% are illiterate, and the clan ethos and the Sharia law upon which the government is based often ignore them.

And the arcane proclamations of holy men confound. One of the country's leading religious voices, Sheik Abdul Majeed Zindani, a cleric with a henna-dyed beard whom the U.S. considers a terrorist, proclaimed that he had scientific proof that women cannot speak and remember simultaneously.

"Yemen is the home of the Queen of Sheba," Basha says. "How can you say women can't govern? Yemen is a failed state today and men have been the rulers."

Talk of the legendary queen leads to quotations from the Koran and asides on clan codes, Islamic law and Yemen's Constitution, all delineated, as is her way, in words scrubbed of euphemism. She knows this nation's mountains and cities, its deserts and Arabian Peninsula coast, where soldiers patrol and anger and rebellion fume daily.

Yet it is references to the veil, that burdensome scrim of cloth she so despises, that run through her conversation, symbolizing rights denied.

"There is nothing in the Koran to say that women should cover their hair," she says. "But if I say this, they say I am not a Muslim.... Why should women be covered in black? Invisible. Who invented this idea? Walls around our houses, veils over us, walls around our freedom of expression. Walls."

The tea grows cold, the morning is nearly done. Basha stands. An assistant appears with more papers, stories of abuse from Yemen and across the globe. She walks into the hallway, past a poster of shackled hands. She looks at it for a while and then steps outside.

A friend tells her: "You are one of only 31 unveiled women in this country."
"No," she says, "the number is down to 22."

On the eve of opening a regional soccer cup, Yemen says Al Qaeda and separatists still try to foil the Gulf 20 by fake rumors

On the eve of opening a regional soccer cup, Yemen says Al Qaeda and separatists still try to foil the Gulf 20 by fake rumors
By Nasser Arrabyee/21/11/2010

The Yemeni government said Sunday that Al Qaeda and the southern separatist movement do their best to foil the regional football tournament scheduled to start Monday.

In a statement issued by the local authority in Aden, the local government said that “dark and terrorist elements from Al Qaeda separatists against unity and Yemen’s stability” were behind spreading rumors and fake allegations that Gulf 20 will be an occasion for drinking liquors and allowing men and women dancing together during the opening of the sporting event.
The statement said such allegations were untrue and baseless.

Earlier in the day, a group of clerics issued a statement in which they expressed their concerns that the Gulf 20 would an occasion for dancing and drinking.

The Aden local government urged the clerics who issued the statement and all other elites, to do their best to make the Gulf 20 a success and not to listen to rumors of the enemies of Yemen from Al Qaeda and separatists.

Yemen and the six Gulf countries and Iraq will start Monday November 22, 2010 a football championship amid suspense and fear of any possible violent acts to foil the event.
The sporting event, the Gulf 20, would be held in Yemen for the first time since Yemen joined the GCC sports institutions in 2003.

Such a sporting event comes after a big controversy and arguments not only in Yemen and GCC but also in the world over holding or not holding it in a country which faces security challenges.
Participating teams from all the six GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation Council) and Iraq arrived in Aden on Saturday and Sunday after leaders of their countries agreed to hold the tournament in Yemen despite internal objections in almost the six Gulf countries.

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and majority of the State’s officials, including vice president and prime minister and defense and interior minister, have been in Aden doing their best around the clock during the Eid holiday for checking the final arrangements for such an event which became more political than sporting.

The Yemeni government spent about 560 million dollars on new sporting facilities like Stadiums and others in the two southern cities of Aden and Abyan where the event would held from November 22nd, to December 5th.

New five star-hotels were established by Yemeni and Arab investors for the same purpose.
Thousands of cheers from the GCC countries have already arrived to the beautiful coastal city of Aden to spend Eid Al Adha holiday and support their teams.

Yemen participated in Gulf 16, Gulf 17, Gulf 18, and Gulf 19, before it hosted the Gulf 20.
Yemen ranked the last in all the previous championships.

Now, people in Yemen do not care too much about their team winning, but they care much about their country’s ability to hold the championship without any violence.
In attempt to foil the sporting event, the separatist southern movement threatened to organize anti-unity demonstrations during the period of playing.

The Minister of sporting Hamoud Obad commented on their threats by saying “It’s fake threats, like fireworks, and they are less patriotic than the Mafya of South Africa who supported the world cup.”

The separatist movement, disgruntled groups calling for separating the south from the north which united in 1990, because they say they are politically marginalized, are trying to do their best to foil the championship.

A group outside the country led by the former President of the south Ali Salem Al Baidh, is supporting the internal separatist movement to foil the Gulf 20, which would show that Yemen is not as bad as portrayed by media, if successfully held.

Obviously, the Yemeni officials topped by President Saleh are not sparing any political or financial efforts to show the their neighbors (GCC) and the world that Yemen is not as bad as they think.

More than 30,000 soldiers were already deployed in and around the city of Aden and along the road from Aden to the stadium of Abyan. More than this number will be in civil clothes to help the secret police to control any attempt to disturb the event.

And because Al Qaeda is more active in the south, there is also some fears of any possible attacks by Al Qaeda operatives who always exploit the increasing tension between the government and the separatist movement.

The moderate Egyptian cleric Amr Khaled will be implementing an anti-Al Qaeda campaign in Aden and Sana’a during the Gulf 20 football championship.

The campaign, called the battle of minds and hearts against Al Qaeda, will be opened by President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Tuesday November 23, in Aden and on 25 in Sana’a.
The moderate preacher who has a lot of fans in Yemen, will target the young people in Yemen convincing them that Al Qaeda thoughts are not Islamic. The campaign is organized by the Right Start Foundation, chaired by Amer Khaled, in cooperation with the Yemeni government.

Mullen says al-Qaida threat from Yemen is serious

Source: AP, 21/11/2010

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says he believes Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula's boast that it will try to carry out more cheap, small-scale attacks.
Adm. Mike Mullen says the terrorist group in Yemen has grown and is dangerous, and that counterterrorism efforts should focus on its activities.

In an online magazine, al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula boasts that it's using cheap and easy methods to attack U.S. targets, pointing to a failed plot to bomb two U.S.-bound cargo planes.
The group says it can "bring down America" with smaller attacks that play on what it calls the "security phobia that is sweeping America."

Mullen told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday he considers the threat to be serious.

AlQaeda Branch Aimed for Broad Damage at Low Cost

Source: The New York Times, By SCOTT SHANE, 21/11/2010

In a detailed account of its failed parcel bomb plot last month, Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen said late Saturday that the operation cost only $4,200 to mount, was intended to disrupt global air cargo systems and reflected a new strategy of low-cost attacks designed to inflict broad economic damage.

The group, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, released to militant Web sites a new edition of its English-language magazine, called Inspire, devoted entirely to explaining the technology and tactics in the attack, in which toner cartridges packed with explosives were intercepted in Dubai and Britain. The printers containing the cartridges had been sent from Yemen’s capital, Sana, to out-of-date addresses for two Chicago synagogues.

The attack failed as a result of a tip from Saudi intelligence, which provided the tracking numbers for the parcels, sent via United Parcel Service and FedEx. But the Qaeda magazine said the fear, disruption and added security costs caused by the packages made what it called Operation Hemorrhage a success.

“Two Nokia mobiles, $150 each, two HP printers, $300 each, plus shipping, transportation and other miscellaneous expenses add up to a total bill of $4,200. That is all what Operation Hemorrhage cost us,” the magazine said.

It mocked the notion that the plot was a failure, saying it was the work of “less than six brothers” over three months. “This supposedly ‘foiled plot,’ ” the group wrote, “will without a doubt cost America and other Western countries billions of dollars in new security measures. That is what we call leverage.”

The magazine included photographs of the printers and bombs that the group said were taken before they were shipped, as well as a copy of the novel “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens that it said it had placed in one package because the group was “very optimistic” about the operation’s success.

The magazine also gave a detailed account of the construction and disguise of the explosives. Three private organizations that track militants’ communications said they had no doubt the account was authentic. Ben Venzke, who runs IntelCenter, a Virginia company that discovered the 23-page “special issue” of Inspire on the Web on Saturday night, said the magazine showed the growing savvy of the Qaeda affiliate in Yemen in both operations and messaging.

“In the last year, we’ve seen a much greater sophistication from A.Q.A.P., and Inspire is sort of the tip of the spear,” Mr. Venzke said.

Mr. Venzke said that in many years of closely following terrorist groups’ public statements, IntelCenter had never seen “such a detailed accounting of the philosophy, operational details, intent and next steps following a major attack.” He called it “a far cry from the days of shadowy claims and questions as to who was actually responsible.”

The magazine said that it had adopted a “strategy of a thousand cuts.”

“To bring down America we do not need to strike big,” it said. “In such an environment of security phobia that is sweeping America, it is more feasible to stage smaller attacks that involve less players and less time to launch and thus we may circumvent the security barriers America worked so hard to erect.”

The magazine repeated a claim from the group that it was responsible for the Sept. 3 crash of a U.P.S. jet in Dubai that killed the two pilots. Investigators in the United Arab Emirates concluded that the pre-crash fire was not caused by an explosion, and intelligence officials are skeptical about the Qaeda claim, noting that the group probably would have claimed it as a success at the time.

The new issue of Inspire asserts that because the Sept. 3 crash was not attributed to terrorism, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula decided to remain silent about it to increase chances that future parcel bombs would go undetected. But nothing in the magazine showed inside knowledge of what caused the crash.

The magazine has the same flashy graphics, idiomatic English and cocky attitude as were shown in the first two issues, released online in the summer and fall. Intelligence officials have said they believe it is largely the work of Samir Khan, an American citizen who moved to Yemen from North Carolina last year. It may also reflect the influence of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born radical cleric who is now active in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula consists mainly of Saudis and Yemenis and is believed to have close ties to Osama bin Laden and the terrorist network’s central leadership in Pakistan. It initially focused on plotting against the Saudi monarchy and the Yemeni government and continues to carry out attacks in the region. The group trained and equipped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian who tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit last Dec. 25, and its rhetoric has increasingly echoed the central Qaeda goal of attacking the United States.

Yemen hosts regional soccer championship despite Al Qaeda and separatist threats

Yemen hosts regional soccer championship despite Al Qaeda and separatist threats
By Nasser Arrabyee/21/11/2010

Yemen and the six Gulf countries and Iraq will start Monday November 22, 2010 a football championship amid suspense and fear of any possible violent acts to foil the event.
The sporting event, the Gulf 20, would be held in Yemen for the first time since Yemen joined the GCC sports institutions in 2003.

Such a sporting event comes after a big controversy and arguments not only in Yemen and GCC but also in the world over holding or not holding it in a country which faces security challenges.
Participating teams from all the six GCC countries (Gulf Cooperation Council) and Iraq arrived in Aden on Saturday after leaders of their countries agreed to hold the tournament in Yemen despite internal objections in almost the six Gulf countries.

The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and majority of the State’s officials have been in Aden doing their best around the clock during the Eid holiday for checking the final arrangements for such an event which became more political than sporting.

The Yemeni government spent about 560 million dollars on new sporting facilities like Stadiums and others in the two southern cities of Aden and Abyan where the event would held from November 22nd, to December 5th.

New five star-hotels were established by Yemeni and Arab investors for the same purpose.
Thousands of cheers from the GCC countries have already arrived to the beautiful coastal city of Aden to spend Eid Al Adha holiday and support their teams.

Yemen participated in Gulf 16, Gulf 17, Gulf 18, and Gulf 19, before it hosted the Gulf 20.
Yemen ranked the last in all the previous championships.

Now, people in Yemen do not care too much about their team winning, but they care much about their country’s ability to hold the championship without any violence.

In attempt to foil the sporting event, the separatist southern movement threatened to organize anti-unity demonstrations during the period of playing.

The Minister of sporting Hamoud Obad commented on their threats by saying “It’s fake threats, like fireworks, and they are less patriotic than the Mafya of South Africa who supported the world cup.”

The separatist movement, disgruntled groups calling for separating the south from the north which united in 1990, because they say they are politically marginalized, are trying to do their best to foil the championship.

A group outside the country led by the former President of the south Ali Salem Al Baidh, is supporting the internal separatist movement to foil the Gulf 20, which would show that Yemen is not as bad as portrayed by media, if successfully held.

Obviously, the Yemeni officials topped by President Saleh are not sparing any political or financial efforts to show the their neighbors (GCC) and the world that Yemen is not as bad as they think.

More than 30,000 soldiers were already deployed in and around the city of Aden and along the road from Aden to the stadium of Abyan. More than this number will be in civil clothes to help the secret police to control any attempt to disturb the event.

And because Al Qaeda is more active in the south, there is also some fears of any possible attacks by Al Qaeda operatives who always exploit the increasing tension between the government and the separatist movement.
The moderate Egyptian cleric Amr Khaled will be implementing an anti-Al Qaeda campaign in Aden and Sana’a during the Gulf 20 football championship.

The campaign, called the battle of minds and hearts against Al Qaeda, will be opened by President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Tuesday November 23, in Aden and on 25 in Sana’a.
The moderate preacher who has a lot of fans in Yemen, will target the young people in Yemen convincing them that Al Qaeda thoughts are not Islamic. The campaign is organized by the Right Start Foundation, chaired by Amer Khaled, in cooperation with the Yemeni government.

Yemen could be heaven

Source: Irishtimes.com by Tom Kelly, 20/11/2010

An enchanted Christmas at DisneyGrub's up in GrenadaIt’s an extraordinary land where its ancient nickname, Arabia Felix or Lucky Arabia, might ring true again. And we’d all be lucky to see it, writes Tom Kelly



MOSTLY I was eyed with a vaguely quizzical look. That was people’s reaction here when I mentioned I was about to visit Yemen. They’d heard of it, just about. Of course, that was a few weeks ago. Yemen has hardly been out of the headlines since. And for all the wrong reasons.
However, what hasn’t featured in the recent tsunami of bad news is that this ancient land, mentioned in the Book of Genesis and the Koran , has a capital that’s possibly the world’s oldest inhabited city. That it’s the home of the fabled Queen of Sheba, though her celebrity story is somewhat blurred by the vaseline of time. That Arabic coffee came from here, with Yemen’s Red Sea port of Mocha celebrated daily in cafes around the world. That the best frankincense came from here.

Yemen, I was to discover, is a land of surprises. Firstly, there’s the driving.
We race into the capital, Sana’a, slaloming freestyle between lanes, dodging oncoming traffic, when suddenly the Landcruiser is hurtling between sloping, brick-lined walls, like an oversized drain. It turns out, it is. Not unlike LA’s culverts famous from cop shows and the car duels in Grease , Sana’a has its Saila – literally a road-cum-canal which annually becomes a waterway in full flood in the monsoons. Later I see photos taken just months earlier of boys diving into deep rushing water off bridges I’d driven under.

But it’s the breathtaking Old City above that really startles. Tall, narrow, chocolate-brown buildings jostle for space, as streets only as wide as your wing mirrors swerve and twist tightly below. Their exposed brickwork is geometrically patterned, giving each an exquisite fingerprint. Randomly placed windows are delineated in white gypsum, often with intricate stained glass. Originally carved alabaster, they’re now cast plaster.

From the charming rooms of the Burj Al Salam hotel, a converted eight-storey tower house, my view is across a fantasy cityscape where ornate minarets gracefully punctuate the complex rectangularity. These didn’t seem so graceful, of course, when the 4am calls to prayer kicked out loudly across the city, and Sana’a’s many mosques resolutely refused to sync up.

Bab al-Yemen, the main entrance to the Old City and its thronged Souk al-Mihl (the Salt Souk), bears witness to the country’s vigorously contested past, with a large cannonball hole busted through the heavy gate. Every turn reveals a specialist sub-souk: this way, the air is heady with spices; there flanks of ornate Jambiyyas, the curved tribal knives thrust proudly in the broad belts of most Yemeni men, look like glimpses into an ancient armoury.

Shopkeepers sit up on their counters cross-legged, a ready sample of their wares proffered at the slightest eye contact. These master retailers could sell rain to the Irish. But business is down, they lament, no tourists.

One market bucks the trend: qat (pronounced ghat). In our terms, this is the local poison. It’s a mildly hallucinogenic plant that the entire male population chews after lunch. A day’s qat would be about the size of a supermarket salad bag and the leaves are slowly chewed, but crucially, not swallowed. Instead they squirrel away the chewed store in their cheeks until after a couple of hours, every traffic cop, shopkeeper and waiter looks like he’s stuffed a tennis ball in one distended cheek.

Night falls hard and fast, and the city’s main streets get a second wind, as traders set up along the pavement. Down a jammed cul-de-sac, street restaurants compete loudly for business. The chefs cook at what are effectively flame throwers, shooting spikes of fire a metre high. When the food arrives, the dishes are so hot, waiters gingerly carry them with pliers.

Fasulia, a spicy bean stew, is mopped up with delicious just-baked khobs bread the size of a coffee table. Spring onions are carefully trimmed and bundled as palette cleansers. A beer would be great, but needless to say, that’s not going to happen. There’s not a woman in sight, at least not a local.

A couple of hundred miles east of the capital lies the great Wadi Hadhramawt. From school geography, you may remember a wadi is a dried river bed. Those conjured up in dry pages then are pale imitators of the extraordinary landscape that Hadhramawt and its offshoot wadis encompass. This is like Arizona’s Monument Valley, where John Ford shot many a John Wayne movie and pesky injuns in the process. Towering, steep-walled canyons criss-cross the limestone Jol plateau, as eons of water have exploited the rock’s weaknesses, relentlessly filing and washing away. Flying overhead, you see tell-tale ribbons of vegetation trace the rivers’ now invisible beds along flat valley floors.

And on the ground, another extraordinary architectural vernacular is revealed. Towns and cities composed of more tall, compressed buildings, are pushed back against the soaring wadi walls, looking like they may have come from the imagination of a sci-fi writer. Most famous is Shibam, the so-called Manhattan of Mud or I prefer, the Chicago of the Desert. Mud-brick skyscrapers, up to eight and nine stories, crowd together, walled in, with a massive face of wadi cliff behind to take the breath away.

But other towns too, like Hajarin make one gasp. It wraps around a mighty promontory, climbing up and clinging to its sides, with houses as precariously balanced as Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater. Inside, neighbouring homes are often connected by separate corridor bridges on the upper floors, so the women won’t be seen at street level en route to visit friends.

There’s a conservatism in Yemen that can be as breathtaking as the sights. From puberty, women wear full length black baltos, with matching veils and headscarves. Most show only their eyes, some not even, shielded by black gauze. Others wear gloves to cover the final inches of skin. This is their wardrobe for business, mothering, shopping, working, even in the fields under a baking sun. An English Al Jazeera producer we meet, who is there sprucing up her Arabic says when the girls are out together, like at a wedding she got to, with no men allowed, the gear would knock your eyes out.

However, in some communities, women can’t even appear in public in the grocery market; they can only shop for ladies clothes. And gold. In one town, a neighbourhood of gold jewellery shops is choc-a-block with black-veiled women. It’s their insurance in case of divorce, I’m told, the way to take a dowry with them. And they’re all doing business.

Arabia Felix Yemen was once called, Lucky Arabia, on account of its bountiful rainfall and verdant landscape. Even in 1000 BC it was known for its frankincense. Mugeeb, one of our guides, makes a tiny cut in a frankincense tree one day to show me the rich, sweet sap. Who’d have thought it comes from a tree? Myrrh too. Now it’s the poorest state in the Middle East – and it is poor – with little oil and diminishing water. Their luck is running thin.

We have an armed escort with us, AK47s casually slung about. They are obviously concerned for our safety which is both reassuring and not. There have been incidents. We take photos of Shibam at magic hour, as the sun slips down, from an elevated rocky outcrop where a South Korean tour party were victims of a suicide bomber last year. Another guide, Mohammed (call me “Vic”) had been kidnapped for 18 days with an English oil engineer a few years previously. Vic laughs it off and is writing a book with his co-kidnapee. While I’m there, there are reports of various embassies sending staff home.

Yemen undoubtedly is in flux. There’s a mini-civil war in the north, a secessionist struggle to the south, in the old Aden Protectorate, and allegedly al-Qaeda just behind you. Yet everywhere, people are welcoming in the Arabic tradition. Ask directions and you might easily find you’re led to your destination by an enthusiastic local. Kids want photos taken and all your spare stationery. Students practise their English on you. Every mispronounced salam is warmly responded to. There’s a Yemen of hard headlines and entirely another in her people.

BACK TO THE west of Sana’a, another startling landscape unfolds as the road hairpins through the Haraz Mountains. We seem to wait for the blind corners before overtaking laden-down lorries snailing these steep inclines. But the panoramas divert at every sweep. Slender terraces of cultivation step down for perhaps 1,000 metres or more, hugging the mountainsides as if so many 3D contour lines. And atop the mountains, fortress towns peer across at each other, hunched right to the edge, playing chicken with the vertiginous drops.

Kawkaban. Thula. Manakah. Al Hajjarah. The twisting climbs to them reward with one astonishing view after another. The only thing more convoluted than the roads that join them, is the phonetic free-association spelling of each placename. Even an unmissable photo op at signs for the town of Al Qaidah offers a few alternative spellings. Ewan McGregor is said to be starring in the upcoming movie of Paul Torday’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.

In Hudaydah on the Red Sea, just a short sea hop across from Djibouti, an early morning visit to the fish market doesn’t feature salmon, but it has plenty of shark. Hammerhead, blue, white, some three metres long. Boys struggle to ferry them in wheelbarrows from boat to bidders. A swift incision sees the innards searched for embryos, a prized Asian delicacy, along with the fins, of course. The rest, quickly iced and off to local fish sellers.

Later in the day to a hot, humid market at Bayt al-Faqih, once key to coffee trade. A heaving sea of bodies, it’s like a Croke Park full house emptying through a maze, where one-third of the crowd are camels, goats, mules and chickens. I soon stop trying to remember everything that’s for sale to work out what’s not.

All life is here. Death too. Rows of blenders are churning out fresh fruit smoothies, while just metres away, a goat is skilfully butchered, hanging off the back of a van. At one narrow junction, about 30 horn-blasting 4x4 pickups are bumper to bumper facing double their number of dramatically pimped-up motorbike taxis in a loud, but one suspects regular, stand-off.

Afterwards in a Zabeed teahouse, lounging on low benches with glasses of sweet shay, there’s the offer of fragrant shisha pipes. Much of the town is at prayer in the mosque, but a few local men are here, starting on their bags of qat, chewing the fat. We exchange stories too, in the cool of the shade.

Yemen can cast a spell on the casual traveller. Not that I think many will be rushing to discover its many charms and surprises in the short term, at least. However, this an extraordinary land with a hospitable people where some time its ancient nickname, Arabia Felix, might ring true again. And we’d all be lucky to see it.

Getting there

Flights all the way with Turkish Airlines (see turkishairlines.com) through Istanbul to Sana’a. Internal flights with Felix Airways (see felixairways.com).

Tips for Yemen


Getting around
For many reasons, not least of which is security, use a local guide company. Bazara Travel (bazaratravel.com) looked after us superbly. Travel overland in Yemen is controlled by the Government, with permits required for anything other than local driving. Checkpoints everywhere police the paperwork. And driving is, let’s say, loose.

Hotels
Burj Al Salam in Sana’a and Samah Palace in Seiyun have local charm; and Sofitel Al Saeed in Taiz could be a five-star anywhere.

Food
Restaurants may look a little suspect, but the food was always tasty and generous. Antiseptic gel is a must as you generally eat with your fingers. Unwind with a regular shay with fresh mint. Though for a country once famous for it, Yemen coffee can be hard to find. Perhaps the hit of qat serves that end.