Yemen

NOVANEWS   John Glaser   Yemen’s current head of state, Vice President Abedrabo Mansur Hadi, has rejected offers to negotiate an transitional government until President Saleh returns from Saudi Arabia where he is receiving medical treatment for wounds suffered in an attack on his compound. There are still mass demonstrations, largely peaceful, occurring in the captial Sana’a as well as some scattered, deadly fighting in the south. A Joint Meeting of opposition parties has actually agreed to recognize Hadi for the time being (while still trying to play for a transition), there are whispers of at least some informal ceasefire, and army troops loyal to Saleh have withdrawn from the streets (here). But there are good reasons to believeSaleh won’t be returning to Yemen any time soon...

Security forces in the Yemeni capital battled heavily armed supporters of the country's most powerful triballeader on Thursday as President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the tribesman's arrest. The leader, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, in turn accused Saleh of dragging Yemen into civil war, speaking after hours of clashes late on Wednesday and overnight in which at least 24 people were killed. Meanwhile a website linked to the defence ministry said 28 more people died when an explosion ripped through an ammunition store belonging to the al-Ahmar tribal opposition. But a dissident military official whose troops are stationed in the area denied the existence of an ammunition store there. AFP could not immediately confirm the reports independently. Amid the escalating bloodshed, US Secretary o...

NOVANEWS by crescentandcross     Ed note–We here at The Ugly Truth predicted more than a month ago that the US–despite making the appearance of supporting Saleh, would eventually abandon him. The reason we were able to make this prediction is because we have maintained from the beginning that  the “revolutions” in the Middle East were not, are not and will not be “spontaneous” grass-roots events free of “foreign influence” and that it is the goal if Israel and America to see ALL regimes replaced with new ones. Shifting US policy in Yemen is influenced by counterterrorism concerns and Saudi Arabia’s growing role. Gregg Carlstrom, aljazeerah The US has slowly been dropping its support for Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, long one of its closest allies in the region – bu...