Key Yemeni rebels face call for UN sanctions

THE United States has asked for targeted UN sanctions to be imposed on Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and two Houthi rebel leaders for threatening the peace and stability of Yemen and obstructing the political process.

Washington has submitted a formal request for the United Nations Security Council Yemen sanctions committee to subject the men to a global travel ban and asset freeze. The committee is due to discuss the request tomorrow, diplomats said yesterday.

Yemen, a US ally neighbouring oil-producing giant Saudi Arabia with a population of 25 million, is trying to end political unrest that began with mass protests against Mr Saleh, president for 33 years until he stepped down in 2012.

“As of autumn 2012 Ali Abdullah Saleh had reportedly become one of the primary supporters of the Houthi rebellion. Saleh was behind the attempts to cause chaos throughout Yemen,” the United States said in its “statement of case”.

“More recently, as of September 2014, Mr Saleh is reportedly inciting instability in Yemen by using the Houthi dissident group to not only delegitimise the central government, but also create enough instability to stage a coup,” it added.

The United States has also requested that Houthi leader Abd al-Khaliq al-Huthi and the group’s second-in-command Abdullah Yahya al Hakim be blacklisted.

Fighting has flared in different parts of Yemen since the Houthis, a group of Shiite Muslim rebels, rose to dominance in recent months. Houthi forces took over the capital, Sanaa, in September and fanned out into central and western Yemen.

“In late September, an unknown number of Houthi movement fighters allegedly were prepared to attack the US Embassy in Sanaa,” the US case said.