ANSD : Yemeni govt names Saleh’s brother to top army post

SAT 27 - 4 - 2024

Date: Mar 19, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Yemeni govt names Saleh’s brother to top army post

ADEN, Yemen: Yemen’s beleaguered government named a brother of slain former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, for years an enemy of the state, to a top army post. A presidential decree published on the Saba news agency Saturday named Ali al-Humeiri, half brother of Saleh, head of Yemen’s army reserve. But the position is little more than ink on paper, insiders said, as the troops are effectively controlled by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on the ground.

A local government official in Aden confirmed the reserve was under the control of the Houthis, who in 2014 joined ranks with Saleh to drive the government out of the capital Sanaa.

The appointment could, however, signal an overture between the government of Abed Rabbou Mansour Hadi, which has fought the Houthis for four years, and political factions still loyal to slain Saleh, the official said.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, when an Arab-led coalition intervened with the aim of pushing the Houthis from Sanaa and restoring the government to power.

The Iran-backed Houthis have tightened their grip on the capital after gunning down Saleh in December following weeks of accusations he had been holding secret talks with the Saudi-allied government.

The Yemeni army has since splintered, with factions in Sanaa maintaining loyalty to the Houthis, other brigades allied with the coalition and some troops in southern Yemen standing by separatists who want to restore independence.

More than 2,300 Yemenis have died of cholera and 70 of diphtheria amid deteriorating hygiene and sanitation conditions, the World Health Organization said.

It said a diphtheria outbreak in Yemen has spread rapidly nationwide and infected more than 1,300 people. The WHO added that children and young adults account for almost 80 percent of cases and more than 70 people have died.

The war in Yemen has triggered what the United Nations calls the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

Multiple rounds of U.N.-brokered talks have failed to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called for dialogue between factions in Yemen to end the conflict, Iranian state media reported Saturday. Shamkhani made the comment during a meeting with Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi in Tehran.

“The shared view of Iran and Oman about the Yemen crisis is that the war must end quickly with the beginning of a cease-fire, the ending of the siege, sending humanitarian help and the beginning of Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue for the development of new political structures based on the vote and desires of the people of Yemen,” Shamkhani said.

Saudi Arabia and the Houthis are holding secret talks to try to end the 3-year-old war, diplomats and Yemeni political sources have said.

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