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| Arabia | ||
| Yemen to Become Six-Region Federation | ||
| 2014-02-11 | ||
| [An Nahar] A presidential panel has agreed to transform Yemen into a six-region federation as part of its political transition, state news agency Saba announced Monday. "The final approval" on creating a "federal state of six regions" came at a meeting of the committee, headed by President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and including representatives of Yemen's main parties, Saba said.
Yemen's parties had been divided on whether to split the future federation into two or six regions. Sanaa feared that a straight north-south divide could set the stage for the disgruntled south to secede. Southern parts of Yemen formed an independent state from the end of British colonial rule in 1967 until union with the north in 1990. A secession attempt four years later sparked a brief but bloody civil war that ended with northern forces taking over the south. The six agreed regions include four in the north, comprising Azal, Saba, Janad and Tahama, and two in the south, Aden and Hadramawt. Azal would include the capital Sanaa, in addition to the provinces of Dhamar, Amran and Saada, a stronghold of Iranian catspaws, while Aden would comprise the capital of the former south, as well as Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirateafter seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... , Lahej and Daleh, the news agency reported. The southeastern Hadramawt province would include Al-Mahra, Shebwa and the island of Socotra, while Saba comprises Bayda, Marib, Al-Jawf and Dhamar. Janad would include Taez and Ibb, and Tahama also takes in Hudaydah, Rima, Mahwit and Hajja. The decentralization of power aims to meet the southerners' demands for autonomy. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |