Saudis endanger reforms in Yemen

Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh was injured by shrapnel on Friday and is now being treated in Saudi Arabia. He is unlikely to return to Yemen, the liberal daily Tages-Anzeiger notes, adding that the power politics of Saudi Arabia and the US could still block democratic reforms in Yemen: "The Saudis will hardly let him return to Sanaa. Stability in Yemen is no longer possible with him as leader. ... As the main power on the Arab peninsula Saudi Arabia wants peace in Yemen. ... However the Saudis don't want a democratic system either: the reform virus would be just as dangerous for their rigid monarchy as a war on their border. So they will seek a balance and are likely to enjoy the support of the US in this endeavour. The US has little influence in Yemen but fears it as a stronghold for militant Islamists and al-Qaeda fighters. The democratic reforms the demonstrators have been demanding for months in Sanaa could fall by the wayside as a result of this backroom diplomacy."

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Security Policy / Crises / War, » Unrest / Riots, » Middle East
All available articles from » Tomas Avenarius

» To the complete press review of Monday, June 6, 2011