Nations form Yemen 'life support' group

Separatist demonstrators gather on Downing Street ahead of a conference in London where world leaders met to discuss the problems besetting Yemen.

LONDON // More than a dozen nations, including the UAE, are to form a "life support" group to attempt to thwart Yemen's descent into chaos. In return, the government in Sana'a has committed itself to far-reaching, but as yet unspecified, political and social reforms. The formation of the "Friends of Yemen" was one of the principal outcomes of last night's conference in London when leaders from the Gulf Co-operation Council, Europe and the United States met to discuss the problems besetting Yemen.

Although the immediate concern is the need to bolster Yemen's ability to counter al Qa'eda's growing presence in the country, the conference delegates agreed that, in the long term, the country's economic development represented the only route to stability. Yemeni ministers will now enter talks with the International Monetary Fund on how best to spend almost US$5 billion (Dh18.36bn) in aid, first pledged at another conference in London in 2006.

Little of that money has been disbursed in the past four years because of concerns among developed nations about rampant corruption, inadequate governance and economic incompetence in Yemen. Now the Yemeni government is promising to implement urgent economic and political reforms. The Yemenis will not tolerate any direct outside involvement in these reforms but will be guided on the direction of the economy by the newly formed support group, which will be led by G8 and GCC nations.

It was announced yesterday that a Yemen donors' meeting will be held in Riyadh on February 22-23. Ivan Lewis, the UK's foreign office minister, said last night's meeting was crucial because Yemen was "not a failed state, but it is an incredibly fragile state". He added: "We want to see Yemen's neighbours make a more significant contribution and we want the international community to come together and recognise that supporting the government of Yemen is crucial to the stability of that country, but it is also crucial to the stability of the world."

Abu Bakr al Qirbi, Yemen's foreign minister, told the BBC his country wanted "international support to build infrastructure, combat poverty and create jobs, as well as support in combating terrorism". The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, called the meeting - taking advantage of the presence in London of dozens of foreign ministers, including the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, for today's conference on Afghanistan - after a Nigerian man, who had spent time in Yemen, tried to detonate a suicide bomb on a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day. Al Qa'eda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for his attempt, saying it was to avenge US attacks on militants in Yemen.

The US and Britain have now promised to massively increase funds for antiterrorism and antipiracy operations in Yemen but Mr al Qirbi made it plain yesterday that it was "inconceivable" that there would be any US military bases on Yemeni soil. "The Yemeni people deserve the opportunity to determine their own future rather than leaving their fate to extremists who incite violence and inflict harm," Mrs Clinton said in prepared remarks released ahead of the meeting.

"To help the people of Yemen, we - the international community - can and must do more. And so must the Yemeni government." Ginny Hill, an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, said that, beyond the immediate concerns over al Qa'eda, the summit was urgently needed because Yemen was a "collapsing state". "Oil revenues are falling, as oil production turns downwards and there is currently little inward investment to support a sustainable economic base," she said. "Terrorist networks are likely to grow as the state collapses, so an effective counter-terrorism strategy requires a long-term commitment to development, good governance and state building."

Tim Torlot, the UK's ambassador in Sana'a, told the Associated Press: "If the economy continues to deteriorate in the way that we see at the moment, apart from anything else there will be a severe humanitarian crisis." Mr Torlot, who was in London for the meeting, added that the continuing conflicts in north and south Yemen, plus the pressure on resources - including water shortages - could lead to a migration of "unstable, ill-educated populations with the capacity for violence and, to a lesser extent, terrorism" across the northern Gulf and elsewhere.

A senior diplomat in London said: "The outcome of the conference is that the support group will help with nation-building while respecting Yemen's sovereignty. "I think everyone knows that Yemen can't become a client state of the West - that would just be grist to al Qa'eda's mill. There are, though, many ways that the West, Gulf states and other neighbours can help. "The irony is that it took a middle-class graduate with some explosives stuffed down his underpants, to make the world wake up to the fact that Yemen desperately needed that help."

A draft of the communiqué issued at the end of yesterday's conference, obtained in advance by Reuters, says: "Yemen faces growing challenges that threaten stability in the country and the broader region if they are not addressed. "The Yemeni government recognises the urgent need to address political and economic reforms, while major international powers have committed to supporting Yemen in its fight against al Qa'eda."