With President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s presidential term coming to a close (he was elected back in February 2012 for a two-year transition period) NDC representatives all agreed that given the current circumstances a one year extension period had to be set in place.
With another year to transition Yemen onto a fully functional federal state, President Hadi will help overview the drafting of the country’s new constitution as well as nominate the next government.
Even though officials were keen on Tuesday to hail the National Dialogue Conference progresses, instability and insecurity are both at all-time high, putting some serious question marks as to the validity of Yemen’ so called political breakthrough.
Fractured and fragmented, Yemen is but a shadow of its former self, weakened and at time politically impotent, Sana’a central government’s power radius has dramatically withered in the past months as tribal and religious factions have fought for greater control.
Tuesday’s twin attack against two of Yemen’s most prominent politicians has only reinforced the danger which looms over the impoverished nation. Just as Yemen announced the end of its national dialogue a furious Houthi delegation walked out upon hearing that one if its representatives was killed in what appears to be a targeted assassination attack.
Frustrated Haraki militants in the southern territories have grown increasingly restless after a series of military mishaps: two accounts of shelling in al-Dhaleh against civilians populations.
It is in such atmosphere that President Hadi is expected to carve a future for Yemen.
Speaking today, President Hadi stressed, “I did not take over a nation, I took over a capital where gun shots are continuous day and night, where roadblocks fill the streets. I took over an empty bank that has no wages and a divided security apparatus and army."
He added, “The national dialogue document (final communiqué) is the beginning of the road to build a new Yemen.”