US Senate Calls for Ceasefire and Aid to Displaced Yemenis
So glad they are paying attention and that the whole statement wasn’t about al Qaeda. They actually mentioned the refugees, food and medicine!
Matoob Business WASHINGTON – The United States and its international partners must “use all appropriate measures” to keep Yemen from becoming a “failed state,” the US Senate said in a recently approved resolution.
The non-binding measure, which lawmakers approved unanimously on Friday, warns that “instability and terrorism” in Yemen pose a “serious threat” to its people, its neighbors, and the United States.
The United States is on guard against an Al-Qaeda buildup in Yemen and Somalia as it expects the militants to seek refuge there as Washington turns the screws on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Senate urges US President Barack Obama and the international community “to use all appropriate measures to assist the people of Yemen, to prevent Yemen from becoming a failed state,” the resolution says.
The measure calls on Obama to promote economic development and “good governance” reforms in Yemen, and urge government forces and rebels locked in a five-year struggle to immediately halt fighting, and allow humanitarian aid and medicine to reach displaced civilians.
All sides should also help “create an environment that will enable a return to normal life for those displaced by the conflict.”
Yemeni government forces launched an all-out offensive against Shiite rebels — the Huthi — in the north of the Arabian Peninsula country on August 11 in an attempt to end a five-year rebellion.
The Senate “supports the innocent civilians in Yemen, especially displaced persons, who have suffered from instability, terrorist operations, and chronic underdevelopment,” according to the measure.
Lawmakers urged Obama “to give sufficient weight to the situation in Yemen in efforts to prevent terrorist attacks on the United States, United States allies, and Yemeni civilians.”
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin and Republican Senator Richard Lugar — the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — were the measure’s key authors.
