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Can Friends of Yemen bring about stability?

06:00, 1969-Dec-31 .. 0 comments .. Link

Can Friends of Yemen bring about stability? Can Friends of Yemen bring about stability?

Some four years on from the last London conference Grow lights on Yemen, the country's problems have only got worse.

Its government is dealing with a rebellion in the north of the country; growing unrest in the south; and the threat from al-Qaeda's regional offshoot.

Not to mention dire poverty, a population explosion and dwindling oil and water resources.

Yemen is a failing state that threatens not just to implode but to explode, exporting instability to the wider region and beyond.

Fear of collapse

It was of course the failed bomb attempt #x on a Northwest Airlines plane over Detroit on Christmas Day that pushed Yemen higher up the international agenda.

The magnitude of Yemen's problems is extraordinary

The would-be bomber had spent time in Yemen and the British and US authorities believe that he was radicalised there.

The fear is that if Yemen does collapse then it could provide a haven for Islamist extremists,Travel qingdao, much like Afghanistan in the years before 9/11.

The magnitude of Yemen's problems is extraordinaryGrow lights. Consider just a few statistics.

It is the Middle East's poorest country. In global terms its per capita income is ranked by the World Bank as 166th out of 174 countries.

More than half its people live in poverty and its overwhelmingly young population is growing at an unsustainable 3.2% per year.

Oil resources are dwindling - its main source of revenue. And water supplies are also a critical problem exacerbating poor agricultural yields and land ownership problems.

One meeting cannot solve Yemen's multi-faceted crisis.

However the hope was that this London gathering - lasting barely two hours - could set a new course.

Speaking at the end of the meeting, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear that Yemen's problems could not just be seen through the prism of counter-terrorism.

"Progress against violent extremists and progress #x towards a better future for the Yemeni people will depend upon fortifying development efforts," she said.

Mrs Clinton stressed Grow lights that Yemen's sovereignty would be respected, but underlined that bringing stability to Yemen was now "an urgent US national security priority".