Yemen’s Hadi replaces interior, foreign ministers
SAUDI BORDER GUARD KILLED IN SHELLING FROM YEMEN
Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi yesterday reshuffled the country’s cabinet, appointing a new foreign minister and interior minister among others.
Replacing Riyadh Yassin, he appointed Abdul Malek Abdul Jalil Al Mukhlafi as foreign minister. Major General Hussain Mohammad Arab was appointed as interior minister and Abdul Aziz Ahmad Al Jabari was given the position of civil services minister. All three were also made deputy prime ministers. Dr Mohammad Abdul Majid Qubati was appointed minister of information, and Saleh Qaid Al Shangara was appointed minister of transport.
Riyadh Yassin and Dr Abdullah Mohammad Al Sa’edi, both former foreign ministers, were appointed as ambassadors working under the foreign ministry. Al Arabiya reported that Major General Abdu Mohammad Al Hudhaifi was appointed head of the security services, replacing Mahmoud Khalid Al Soufi.
The new interior minister Hassan Arab served in the same position under the ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh from 1995 to 2003.
Foreign Minister Al Mukhlafi was a member of the Shura Council and a leader in the Nasserist party. He was recently appointed as head of the government’s delegation to the Geneva peace talks. He and Al Jabari are taking up ministerial positions for the first time.
Shelling from Yemen meanwhile killed another Saudi border guard, the interior ministry said, the eighth death from Yemeni firing into the kingdom in three days. The latest bombardment hit security posts in Saudi Arabia’s Jazan district at about midday on Monday, the ministry said.
The border attacks could be in retaliation for a coalition air strike on Sunday that targeted “a meeting of leaders” from the Al Houthi rebels in their stronghold of Saada, said Brigadier General Ahmad Assiri, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition which began a military intervention against the militants and their allies in March.
“I think yesterday it was related to what happened, in Yemen,” Assiri said. “We targeted a headquarters where they were meeting.” Cross-border shelling from Yemen has claimed the lives of four members of the security forces and four civilians in the kingdom since Saturday.
Their deaths bring to more than 80 the number of people killed in the Saudi border zone since the kingdom and its Arab allies launched a military intervention against Yemeni Al Houthi militants in March.
Meanwhile, Al Houthi militants are said to be shelling residential neighbourhoods in Taiz as a response to the Saudiled coalition’s air strikes. A Sky News Arabia correspondent said that on Monday that the militia and forces loyal to deposed Yemeni-president Ali Abdullah Saleh launched a series of attacks on residential neighbourhoods in Taiz using heavy artillery.
The coalition continued to launch strikes on Al Houthis, killing as many as 15 militants.
Months of clashes in Taiz, which is the third most populated city in Yemen after Sana’a and Aden, have resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis, Sky News Arabia said.
The Yemeni national army, in cooperation with the popular resistance and the Arab coalition, achieved progress in controlling the Al Masrakh directorate, which is located in the Taiz governorate. Al Houthis have been suffering “enormous” military and human losses”, Sky News Arabia reported. The militants have lost control of cities in South Yemen, including Aden and Lahj.