US to help Yemen go nuclear: Saleh
For several months, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has been promising nuclear energy as a solution to the nation’s energy shortage. (Yemen does have 10.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves but 90% has been sold for export.) Now with his electoral landslide victory well documented, the US and Canada aparently have agreed to assist with the development of a nuclear reactor in Yemen.
This is a bizarre notion in light of Yemen’s close ties to Iran and its flip flopping between support of the WOT and support of “legitimate resistance to the occupation of Muslim lands.”
Yemen hosts and finances various groups the US classifies as terrorist org’s including Hamas and Hibollah. During the recent Israel/Hizbollah war, President Saleh publically and repeatedly urged 1) the invokation of the Arab League’s collective defense treaty 2) sending money and weapons to Hizbollah and 3) opening the borders for the youth to travel to Lebanon.
Various elements within the Yemeni administration are clandestinely supporting the insurgency in Iraq. Not to mention Somalia, Afghanistan, and Chechnia.
Yemen has an established history of contravening international law in exporting large quantities of weapons through the region, and the nation is well known as a central hub of drug smuggling.
Its bureaucracies are incompetent and rife with corruption. Its efforts against al-Qaeda are not consistent or robust to say the least. What bone-headed idiot thinks its a good idea to give them a nuclear reactor?
Then the Saudis are going to want one, ect, ect. Is this the US solution to Iran’s unwillingness to suspend uranium enrichment, give everybody nukes to balance it out? How utterly retarded. And how counter-productive for the US to become even more dependent for its security on “trust-worthy” authoritiarian rulers, and ultimately, their sons.
Furthermore, it remains to be seen whether the recent election will foster long term stability or instability. To the extent that the regime uses its widely acclaimed, partially legitimate victory as a rationale to further marginalize the opposition, political pressure may increase.
YO: Yemen will go nuclear to make up for the shortcomings in the electricity supply in the country, said President Ali Abdullah Saleh Monday evening, at his annual Iftar reception held at the Republican Palace. Necessary studies and research are well underway for the adoption of such a technology.
“We will generate power through nuclear energy in cooperation with the United States and Canada,” Saleh said. “In the first stage, we plan to generate 20,000 megawatts,” he said to his guests, who included senior government officials, religious scholars, members of the business community, tribal sheikhs, social figures, media, and civil society organizations. “This is no longer an campaign promise. It is a serious and new speech.” President Saleh also said the government would work on finding solutions for the threatening shortage of water nationwide and particularly in dried-up Taiz and Sana’a.
“One of the biggest problems we are facing now is water scarcity. I urge all citizens to ration their use of water, because this issue has become a major problem and there should be a massive awareness program,” he said. “Researchers are looking into possibilities of using desalinated sea-water for drinking purposes—not for irrigation—to resolve the problem of water scarcity in Sana’a, Taiz and other cities,” he added. Saleh criticized the use of large quantities of water for cultivating qat – a stimulant plant chewed by Yemenis. He called upon the concerned bodies to perform awareness programs to educate people in general, and the youth in particular, about the harms of qat.
“About 35 to 40 percent of water resources goes to qat irrigation, so people need to be aware about water preservation, and spreading awareness is the responsibility of all,” he said. “Fathers and mothers have to educate their children so they give up the habit of chewing qat,” he added. Saleh pointed out that the qat habit is a major source of corruption. “There are many people earning 20,000 rials’ wages yet spend about 5,000 rials daily on Qat. Where does this money come from?” he asked. Some people, he said, break the law in some way or another to get money for qat.
“Yemeni people said ‘Yes’ to security and stability on September 20th,” Saleh said, referring to the presidential election that gave him 77.17 percent of the votes. In his speech, Saleh also blamed the instability and chaos in Iraq and Somalia on the U.S. “Which is better, Sadam Hussein’s dictatorship or today’s democracy in Iraq where massacres happen every day?” he asked.
“Which is better, the dictatorship of Mohammed Sayeed Barre or the situation in Somalia now?” Saleh said his party, the General People’s Congress, would fulfill all the promises it made to voters, and that his government would draft a detailed action plan to translate his election program into reality. Fighting corruption will be his top priority, he said.
Singing the praises of dictatorships.
