Source : Vesti Kavkaza
Saudi Arabia has started construction of a 2,000- km concrete wall to secure its territory from Al Qaeda militants from Yemen, RBC reports.
The idea to build the wall was inspired by events of the Arab Spring when the situation worsened. Five borders guards of Saudi Arabia have died in the latest attack of smugglers.
Source : Yemen Post
Muhammad Al-Zubairy, the current rotating president of the Joint Meeting Parties JMP, Yemen’s main opposition bloc which is one of the two partners in the West-backed political transition, met on Thursday with Syrian president Bashar Assad, Syrian media outlets reported. The Syrian reports said Assad met with Al-Zubairy in his capacity as the secretary general of the Baath Party in Yemen, not as the reporting president of the JMP in Yemen. The official website of the Yemeni Baath Party covered the meeting as well saying it dealt with the situations in the Arab region, especially the latest developments in Syria and Yemen. At the talks, that came amid continuous popular uprising against the Assad regime in Syria, there was a focus on the importance to develop the role of the Baath Party in line with the latest developments in the region, the website said. “The talks stressed the importance to stick to Arabism and its thought to face external projects targeting the Arab nation and its forces,” according to the website. The Syrian-led Baath Party has branches in several Arab countries since it is seen as one of the most important groups serving Arabism and the Arab and Muslim issues. The Assad regime has been widely criticized by regional and world countries for the deadly crackdown against the civilians who have been struggling for more than two years to demand change and the departure of the regime. The popular uprising, which started as part of the peaceful protests sweeping the region or what has been knows as the Arab Spring, has become an armed struggle against the Syrian regime, which international reports said has killed more than 90.000 civilians and displaced millions since the unrest started. Al-Zubairy was elected the rotating president of the six-party opposition bloc JMP in Yemen early this month. The JMP was the second partner to sign the GCC-brokered power-transfer deal which forced Yemen’s former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to relinquish power after the mass protests in 2011. It six-party bloc holds half of the power-sharing government under the deal. The meeting between Yemeni party officials with Assad has drawn public criticism, with some saying political forces especially those which were part of the popular uprising against the former regime in Yemen should not meet Syrian officials or show support to the Syr
Source : Al Akhbar English
The Comments high-profile US drone strike that killed American-born radical preacher Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen was partly conducted from a secret air base in Saudi Arabia, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The base was established two years ago as part of US efforts to intensify the pursuit of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a grouping of the Yemeni and Saudi offshoots of the global terror network, the newspaper said.
The September 2011 killing of Awlaki stoked concern because he and Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American who also died in the strike, were US citizens who had never been charged with a crime.
The White House on Tuesday defended drone strikes against Al- Qaeda suspects as legal, ethical and wise and insisted that they complied with US law and the constitution, even if they targeted Americans.
The continued focus on drones comes as White House counter- terrorism chief John Brennan goes before the Senate on Thursday for hearings on his nomination to be head of the CIA.
Brennan has been a central player in the US drone campaign, which has expanded sharply under President Barack Obama despite qualms about its legality and public outrage in Pakistan over civilian deaths.
Brennan, who once served as the CIA's station chief in Saudi Arabia, played a key role in negotiations that led to the drone base being established in the kingdom, according to the Post report.
The newspaper said it decided to reveal the location of the drone base after learning on Tuesday that another US media outlet was about to do so, ending an informal arrangement with news organizations not to publish such details.
A Justice Department memo published by NBC News on Tuesday argued that Americans high up in Al-Qaeda could be lawfully killed, even without evidence they are actively plotting an attack.
"We conduct those strikes because they are necessary to mitigate ongoing actual threats, to stop plots, to prevent future attacks and, again, save American lives," White House spokesman Jay Carney said of the memo.
(AFP)
RedditTweet9 Send by emailPrinter-friendly version Tags Category: Top News Tags: US, Saudi Related Articles US drone war may expand to northwest Africa: report The US military plans to expand its drone program to northwest Africa to bolster surveillance of Islamic militant groups, the New York Times reported Monday. A US official who spoke on condition of...
