Wednesday, November 23, 2011

A Rarity: Middle East Dictator Leaves Post...Free And Alive

That would be Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh, who leaves power with both his freedom and his life:
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has signed a U.S.-backed power transfer deal and will travel to New York for medical treatment, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Associated Press on Wednesday.


Saleh's signature on the accord, brokered by Yemen's powerful Gulf Arab allies, means his 33-year rule and start a new chapter in the nine-month popular uprising that has shaken the Arab world's poorest country.

Saleh was shown on Arabic satellite television stations on Wednesday signing the deal, which gives him immunity from prosecution.
Ed Morrissey writes that the signing in Saudi Arabia illustrates the Sausi influence in the region:
Riyadh seems to be pulling strings all over the region, stepping up where it sees a vacuum of leadership from the US. Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime was living on borrowed time anyway, and this gives the Saudis a chance to play kingmaker in a neighbor with whom they have had numerous issues over the last several decades
Saudi Arabia is picking up the pieces.
This is not Obama's leading from behind.
This is Saudi Arabia distancing itself from the US.

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1 comment:

  1. Daled Amos2:11 PM

    I ran the comment above past someone in a position to comment on it.

    Here is what he wrote back to me:

    "I have never heard of a school in Finland being barbed wired. There is the Finnish tradition of self censorship, but there are some alternative media, but they are not as powerful as the main stream, but people do in fact frequent the internet forums etc. I do however underline that the political-cultural elite have a monopoly on power and access to the media. The political process is rigged to favor the big parties, there are no primaries and though the people vote for individual candidates (that the parties choose themselves to run) you are in fact voting for the party.

    The self anointed elite can be criticized and often are, but not in the way its done in the US or Canada or the UK, that's a Finnish cultural thing that grates me to no end. I can't say for sure whether a public servant has to be affiliated with a party, but it wouldn't surprise me if that were true."

    ReplyDelete

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