The United Nations Security Council will soon adopt a resolution that imposes sanctions against any person or entity who seeks to undermine Yemen’s state-building process, reports AFP.
At least 15 member states are “ready to take measures” against anyone who is “obstructing or undermining the successful completion of the political transition,” according to the council president Prince Zeid al-Hussein of Jordan. Additionally, sanctions will be imposed on any person who commits “attacks on essential infrastructure or acts of terrorism” or who violates international humanitarian law.
The sanctions will include travel bans and asset freezes “for an initial period of one year.”
The resolution does not impose sanctions on former president Ali Abdullah Saleh specifically, as some countries had initially requested, but does suggest that “the transition process requires turning the page” on Saleh’s presidency, says AFP.
Yemen recently laid out a plan to split into a six-state federation after a national conference which began in March of 2013. President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi officially signed off on the transformation, a plan that divides the south into two regions and the north into four, in February of 2014.
Yemen, the poorest Gulf state by far, struggles with a separatist movement in the south and a powerful al-Qaeda presence.
