UK in Yemen

Barely a day goes by without there being a security incident of some form in Yemen: at its most prominent, we see terrorist attacks and assassinations. We see less of the daily insecurity or food insecurity or violence against women that happens in many countries, including Yemen. Security is a basic human right. Security can […]

The next Friends of Yemen meeting will take place on 29 April in London. The meeting will be opened by the British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and will be co-chaired by the Yemeni Foreign Minister Dr al Qirbi, the British Minister for the Middle East, Hugh Robertson and the International Development Minister, Alan Duncan, and […]

The rains began in Sana’a this week. Once day it was dry; the next – almost 4pm on the dot, the heavens opened and the streets became flooded. Children rushed to play in the ankle-high puddles and adults hiked up their clothes to avoid them getting wet and sighed. Two weeks ago – 23rd March […]

On Wednesday 26 February, the United Nations Security Council in New York adopted a new Resolution on Yemen, UNSCR 2140. In its unanimous adoption of this resolution, the Security Council delivered five clear messages: Firstly, that the international community continues to focus on Yemen and wants to support the Yemeni people towards a more stable […]

Every Yemeni and their international friends know that the real test of Yemen’s political transition process will be whether it improves the lives of most Yemenis. Progress won’t happen overnight: significant structural reforms are needed and corruption needs to be tackled before there are real improvements. Life in Yemen is tough: in 2005, 18% of […]

Whilst I was still an Ambassador in Yemen, I wrote a blog offering some tips to the newly appointed members of Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference. I suggested that if they were to rise to the huge historical responsibility placed on their shoulders, and heal the country’s divisions allowing it to become more secure and prosperous, […]

Guest blog by the Embassy Lyricist This week the British Embassy (and millions of Scots worldwide) gathered to remember the Scottish poet Robert Burns.  Britain and Yemen’s shared love of poetry led us to think, could the 18th century poet actually have hailed from Yemen? I’ll leave you to decide! How can a man born in […]

Over the past week or two I have observed that there seems a renewed determination to bring the National Dialogue Conference to an end, though there is still keen debate about what should be in the final outcomes: what needs to be agreed definitively now, and what might be worked out in detail later. While […]