The Obama Administration has dispatched one of the top officials in the US State Department, Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, to Yemen today for emergency talks with the Saleh government.
The talks come in the wake of a regime offensive which failed to retake the city of Zinjibar over the weekend and a major attack on a prison in al-Mukalla, which saw scores of al-Qaeda-linked militants escaping into the countryside.
They appear aimed at advising the Saleh government, which the US hopes will soon cast Saleh off in favor of Major General Hadi, as it struggles to retain control over an increasingly limited portion of Yemen’s territory.
The capital city is in a state of constant protest, while the rest of the nation is flying apart at the seams. Northern and south-eastern secessionist movements have both capitalized on the protests, and the Ansar al-Sharia, a comparatively minor group that took Zinjibar, is itself proving capable of withstanding the military’s attempts at recapture.
It seems unfathomable that the government, as currently composed, can simply reconquer the country, but the Obama Administration seems to be betting that some form of strongman government, with some nominal reforms and heavy support from the US, will eventually be able to centralize control over the nation.
Here we go again! The people shook off the bloody regime practically to pieces, took control over their local governance in many places, while in large cities where people are still on the streets, US is not blinking an eye as this "governmen" takes tanks out on the street to shoot at tent cities of protestors. And now, WE are going to have our hands bloody by helping the regime recapture the control over the country by force! Speaking of "killing own people". This willl be the mother of killing one's own people. Let the South go! It has been captured illegaly bty Saleh, so why is US insisting that it stays in Yemen? People in prisons are enemies of the regime, not inventied Al-Qaeda that the regime bands about to make it easier for US to prop them in power! Oh, what a mess!
Translation: Hillary has gone to Yemen to tell them who their new puppet is.