Yemen: Orderly transition to old guard rule. U.S. approved

The reason the Yemen presidential election is held up as a model is that it involves a transition that the U.S. and neighbouring Arab states regard as in their interests. The fact that this is a deal imposed from the outside by the GCC with the approval of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia is neither here nor there.

The fact that former president Saleh gets to go scot free of any liability for his killing of protesters is not to be mentioned. That his vice president is sole candidate for president does not matter. Nor does it matter that Saleh's relatives still have important roles in the government. In fact some of his relatives run the security forces.

As many protesters thought from the beginning those from the military who joined them were fair weather friends. Now they can participate with the old guard in sharing power they are joining in supporting the vice-president.

The U.S. backs the Saleh approved sole candidate Mansour Hadi a major general. Basically the entire Saleh regime remains in place. Meanwhile Saleh is in the U.S. for medical treatment. Don''t expect the U.S. to hold him responsible for his crimes. Saleh was a good guy helping out in the war on terror as will Hadi.

No doubt many protesters will boycott the elections as wiill Houthi rebels in the north and separatists in the south. One can expect continuing repression of anyone who disagrees with this new model transition to rule by the old guard in Yemen. For more see this article.