US Pushes Yemen Not to Delay Presidential Election

Clinton: Saleh Failing to Live Up to Pledges

The Obama Administration is rebuking the Yemeni government today, following comments from the Foreign Ministry that the February 21 Presidential election could be delayed. Officials say that unrest is making the election date “too difficult.”

This is surprising, as the Yemeni presidential election is a rubber stamp following a GCC deal which has led to the election being a single candidate vote with only Major General Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi running as a “unity candidate.”

Not that this is the problem the US has with the election. The Obama Administration has made it clear that Maj. Gen. Hadi is their military strongman of choice for months now, and the complaint is instead that the delay shows existing military strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh is not stepping down fast enough.

Speaking in the Ivory Coast today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lashed Saleh, saying the US regrets that he has “failed to comply with his own commitments to leave the country and permit elections to go forward that give the people a chance to be heard.” Heard, of course, in voting for the pro-US candidate.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.