Yemen crisis: US, UK and France close embassies
Sanaa (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The United States and the United Kingdom have closed their diplomatic missions in Yemen because of the deteriorating security situation and ongoing political crisis in the Arab nation. France will do the same shortly. The UN will however continue to mediate between the various political factions and the Shia rebels, who last week took control of the capital and dissolved Parliament.
The US and UK governments withdrew the diplomatic staff from Sanaa and urged their citizens to leave. France's embassy in the capital announced that it would close on Friday.
This comes after President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and his cabinet resigned on 22 January when rebels, known as Houthis, overran the presidential palace and placed them under effective house arrest.
The crisis has threatened to derail an UN-backed transition to democracy launched after mass protests forced long time President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power in 2011.
Early today, the United Kingdom announced that it was temporarily suspending the operations of the British embassy in the Yemeni capital because "The security situation in Yemen has continued to deteriorate over recent days," UK Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood said. The United States had already pulled out its diplomatic staff.
Rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi rejected Western fears about the security situation in Yemen, insisting they were "unfounded".
Mr Houthi, who said it was "in the interests of everyone, both inside and outside the country, that Yemen be stable," rejected claims by Sunni-ruled states in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) that the Houthis had carried out a "coup".
The Houthis are a Zaidi Shia group centred in northern Yemen. Since 2004, they have sought more rights and have carried out attacks against the central government and pro-government Sunni militias.
During the 2011 uprising, they built a power base in the northern province of Sa'dah, inflicting a heavy blow against the tribal groups backed by Islah in the neighbouring province of Amran.
In a Middle East torn by violence and war, a stable Yemen is a priority for the United States and Arab countries, given its proximity to Saudi Arabia and to one of the most strategically important maritime trade route, the Gulf of Aden.
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11/08/2017 20:05
