Yemen Will Negotiate With al Qaeda, Again
1- This is not new. In 2005 it became clear that Judge al Hittar’s dialog program was an early release mechanism and little else and the program was discontinued. In June 2006, President Saleh and intelligence chief Gamal al Qamish began direct negotiations with al Qaeda, promising government jobs, more prisoner releases and an easing of travel restrictions in exchange for no attacks within Yemen on government facilities. After 23 high value al Qaeda escaped prison in 2006, those who surrendered were later released after a pledge of loyalty to Saleh. Although described by some Saleh apologists as a time honored tribal mechanism of conflict resolution, (“we have to understand the neighborhood,” they said), naturally the appeasement resulted in both the strengthening and legitimization of al Qaeda.
In January 2009, Saleh negotiated in person with dozens of jihaddists which culminated in the release hundreds of what the Yemeni government called “harmless and aged jihaddists” in exchange for the terrorists supporting the state in its efforts against the southerners. See my article, aptly named Yemen Strikes Multi-Faceted Deals with al Qaeda. Odd how all those al Qaeda training camps popped up in the South after that. Hmmm…
2- Saleh to this point has refused to negotiate with Southern protesters, who remarkably have eschewed violence. The police shoot those political oppositionists in the head and arrest them en masse, triggering more protests. Its little wonder they want to secede. Saleh also refuses to end the blockade on and carpet bombing of the northern Sa’ada province, although the Houthi rebels do not target civilians, unlike al Qaeda (and the Saudi and Yemeni air forces).
Lets look at the difference in the Yemeni government’s approach to the Houthi rebels, who the regime erroneously claims want to re-establish a Shiite theocracy, and their approach to al Qaeda, who do in fact want to establish a global caliphate.
Houthis: an all out relentless military attack, schools closed, preachers replaced, mosques bombed, mass arrests, labeled apostates, blockaded, censored, tortured, sentenced to death.
Al Qaeda: not.
VOA: Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he is willing to negotiate with al-Qaida members who renounce violence and lay down their weapons. The offer goes against the aims of the United States and other nations that are seeking to help Yemen vanquish the local al-Qaida off-shoot.
Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh says talks are possible with any members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula who “return to reason.”
In an interview with Abu Dhabi Television, Mr. Saleh vowed the military would continue to go after militants who do not give up their fight. But he added that dialogue is the best way to deal with those who do…
Yemen’s military, with U.S. assistance, has been conducting operations against what it says are al-Qaida targets in Arhab and Shabwa Provinces. Sana’a says it has killed dozens of terrorists in recent weeks. But there are conflicting reports on the identity of those killed, with witnesses saying at least some of them had no connection to al-Qaida.
Part of the problem is that fighters in Yemen appear to have shifting patrons and allegiances.
Khaled Ghaleb al-Ashdaa is assistant to his father, Sheikh Ghaleb al-Ashdaa, tribal leader of the Murad in Marib and Shabwa Provinces. Speaking beside his father at their home in Sana’a, the son says many of those labelled al-Qaida are former supporters of the government.
The younger al-Ashdaa says they are fighters who helped the government in the 1994 war against southern secessionists and that, earlier, they heeded the U.S. call to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.
Khaled al-Ashdaa believes negotiations are a better approach. He says al-Qaida, or what is called al-Qaida, are people who have problems that the government can solve. But he says it has become an excuse for the state to call someone al-Qaida in order not to solve those problems.
Asked what those demands would be, neither father nor son could answer. But the elder al-Ashdaa says the state provides virtually nothing for his people who, he says, live as if in the Stone Age.
There is no question that some bona-fide al-Qaida fighters have been in Yemen for years. Members bombed the USS Cole in 2000 and a French oil tanker two years later. They also attacked the U.S. embassy in Sana’a in 2008.
Western military analysts believe al-Qaida members who have been pushed out of Afghanistan and Pakistan have found a safe haven in the republic. Estimates of their numbers range up to several hundred.
And from what is known of al Qaida, dedicated to bringing down its enemies and creating a strict Islamic state, little, if anything, is open to negotiation.
But a general strike Sunday in the south of the country highlights another problem of distinguishing between al-Qaida and less militant opponents of the government.
The strike was called to highlight grievances that the region, formerly an independent state, is slighted by the government in the north. Government officials dismiss the southern opposition, and a renewed secessionist movement, as the work of criminals and other outlaws who must be stopped militarily.
