Yemen’s foreign minister is taking a page out of Rahm’s playbook-don’t let a crisis go to waste. Shake down the US for some dough. Some more candy for Yemen’s pols and a few “rehab” programs for terrorists.
That was my thought, too. They want some help from us, so they use this as an excuse.
Frankly, Obama could care less about Muslim terrorists, but he may get involved if the Saudi king asks him to.
Meantime, they can get some aid money out of us.
Yemen’s pretty desperate now. Their President is not a Wahabbi Sunni, he’s a Shia. The Sunni don’t like him because he’s let the CIA use the predator drones to take out their guys and because he’s Shia. The Iranian-backed Shia think he’s a collaborator with the Sunni because he is working with the Saudis & Jordanians who are blockading Yemen to prevent arms shipments from Iran, which seeks to establish a toehold to use against Saudi Arabia. There is a Fundamentalist Sunni secessionist war going on against the gov in S Yemen with al Qaeda added in, and in the north a tribe of Shia Iran is also fighting the gov, but with Iranian backing. What government there is in Yemen is woefully inadequate to fight two wars against two different and opposed insurgencies. That president looks like a turtle in the middle of a highway and probably can’t expect loyalty from anyone with all those different interests in play.