US, France and UK close embassies in Yemen amid turmoil

The United States, Britain and France said Wednesday they
were closing their embassies in Yemen amid the turmoil in the
wake of the Shiite rebels’ takeover of the country.
The closures – almost four years to the date since the start of
an Arab Spring uprising that ousted Yemen’s longtime
autocratic ruler – were an ominous sign for the faltering,
U.N.-brokered negotiations between the Houthi rebels and
their political rivals, They also threatened to plunge this
impoverished Arabian Peninsula country further into
international isolation.
Yemen has been in crisis for months, with the Iran-linked
Houthis besieging the capital, Sanaa, and then taking control.
In January, the rebels put U.S.-backed President Abed Rabbo
Mansour Hadi and all his Cabinet ministers under house
arrest, leading to their resignations. Subsequently, the Houthis
– who are followers of the Shiite Zaydi sect in the Sunni-
majority Yemen – dissolved parliament and declared they were
taking over the government.
On Tuesday, the State Department announced it suspended
operations at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa and relocated
remaining diplomatic personnel “due to the ongoing political
instability and the uncertain security situation.” The embassy
had been operating with only a skeleton staff for some weeks
amid deteriorating conditions.
U.S. officials said the embassy’s closure would not affect
counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida’s Yemen branch
– considered by Washington to be the world’s most
dangerous offshoot of the global terror group. Yemeni officials,
however, say the move was likely to curtail U.S. military
operations in the country.
Yemeni officials said Wednesday that embassy staffers
destroyed files and documents and disposed of firearms
belonging to the embassy guards. They also handed over
Sanaa’s Sheraton Hotel, where staffers had resided for several
years, to the United Nations.
Also Wednesday, Britain’s Minister for the Middle East Tobias
Ellwood urged British citizens still in Yemen to “leave
immediately” as his country’s embassy evacuated its staff.
The French Embassy said it would close on Friday.
“The security situation in Yemen has continued to deteriorate
over recent days,” Ellwood said. “Regrettably, we now judge
that our embassy staff and premises are at increased risk.”
Germany urged its citizens to leave Yemen, Foreign Ministry
spokesman Martin Schaefer said Wednesday.
The diplomatic missions of many Gulf Arab countries, which
backed Hadi and opposed the Houthis, have already evacuated
their staff.
In Sanaa, the Houthis patrolled the streets armed with
Kalashnikov rifles and dressed in a mix of police uniforms and
civilian clothes. They sealed off main boulevards and drove
around in pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.
Shops closed early and people mostly stayed home.
The rebels dispersed several scattered anti-Houthi protests,
beating the demonstrators and attacking them with knives as
they tried to march toward the U.N. offices, according to
witnesses. Several people were arrested, they said. The
Yemeni officials and witnesses spoke to The Associated Press
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized
to talk to media.
Later Wednesday, thousands of Houthi supporters marched in
Sanaa, chanting, “Death to America, Death to Israel” –
echoing similar slogans from Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The Houthis, traditionally based in northern Yemen along the
border with Saudi Arabia, deny they are backed by the Shiite
powerhouse Iran.
They also chanted in support of the rebels’ leader, Abdel-
Malek al-Houthi, who warned critics Tuesday not to stand in
the way of his movement and denounced foreign governments
for removing their diplomats.
“Whoever harms the interest of this country could see that
their interests in this country are also harmed,” al-Houthi said,
speaking on the rebel group’s own Al-Masirah TV network.
( WASHINGTON TIMES )