Yemeni Local Administration Minister Says Pursuing Decentralization Within Legal Frameworks

The Ministry of Local Administration in Yemen aims to enhance decentralization (Saba News)
The Ministry of Local Administration in Yemen aims to enhance decentralization (Saba News)
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Yemeni Local Administration Minister Says Pursuing Decentralization Within Legal Frameworks

The Ministry of Local Administration in Yemen aims to enhance decentralization (Saba News)
The Ministry of Local Administration in Yemen aims to enhance decentralization (Saba News)

Yemen’s Local Administration Ministry is committed to achieving decentralization in all provinces without discrimination, affirmed Minister Hussein Abdulrahman Al-Aghbari.

Besides noting that decentralization will be based on legal frameworks, Aghbari pointed out his ministry’s close cooperation with local authorities in the liberated provinces.

Aghbari outlined in statements to Asharq Al-Awsat the major challenges hindering the performance of his ministry, in addition to the achievements it has made since he assumed the portfolio in the current government led by Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik.

Foremost among these achievements is the restructuring of the administrative situation in the interim capital, Aden.

Aghbari denied rumors of a separate technical project aimed at granting certain provinces individual autonomy apart from the central authority, contrary to what is stipulated in the existing law.

The minister emphasized the effort to provide additional administrative and financial powers to all provinces within the established regulatory frameworks.

“Every endeavor faces obstacles. Obstacles do not hinder those who sleep or sit idle, but rather confront those who are actively working,” Aghbari told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“There is no smooth and easy path for those who move from where they stand to where they aspire and target,” he added.

“In local administration, we navigate a challenging path, facing significant hurdles, just as the entire government does. We work in the midst of war conditions, circumstances that inhibit and restrict rather than facilitate and ease,” Aghbari explained.

Additionally, Aghbari emphasized that his ministry operates with limited resources, lacking sufficient funds.

However, he underscored the need for growth. Aghbari also referred to government efforts such as the Cabinet approving the establishment of a Local Council Development Fund."

As for rumors of a technical project being developed to grant greater autonomy to the provinces of Hadramout, Aden, and Taiz, separate from the central government, the minister dismissed these claims.

“This is baseless talk. There is no such project, and there is no technical committee formed for this purpose,” Aghbari told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Nevertheless, Aghbari emphasized that his ministry is actively working towards adopting an administrative decentralization system and granting broad administrative and financial powers to all provinces.

This is aimed at enabling the provision of high-quality services, achieving balanced development, creating job opportunities through partnerships and collaboration with the private sector, and fostering an environment for attracting foreign investments.



Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
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Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon

The former US special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said the maritime border agreement struck between Lebanon and Israel in 2022 and the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of last year show that a land border demarcation “is within reach.”

“We can get to a deal but there has to be political willingness,” he said.

“The agreement of the maritime boundary was unique because we’d been trying to work on it for over 10 years,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“I understood that a simple diplomatic push for a line was not going to work. It had to be a more complicated and comprehensive agreement. And there was a real threat that people didn’t realize that if we didn’t reach an agreement we would have ended up in a conflict - in a hot conflict - or war over resources.”

He said there is a possibility to reach a Lebanese-Israeli land border agreement because there’s a “provision that mandated the beginning of talks on the land boundary.”

“I believe with concerted effort they can be done quickly,” he said, adding: “It is within reach.”

Hochstein described communication with Hezbollah as “complicated,” saying “I never had only one interlocutor with Hezbollah .... and the first step is to do shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon, Lebanon and Lebanon, and then you had to go to Israel and do shuttle diplomacy between the different factions” there.

“The reality of today and the reality of 2022 are different. Hezbollah had a lock on the political system in Lebanon in the way it doesn’t today.”

North of Litani

The 2024 ceasefire agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take full operational control of the south Litani region, all the way up to the border. It requires Hezbollah to demilitarize and move further north of the Litani region, he said.

“I don’t want to get into the details of other violations,” he said, but stated that the ceasefire works if both conditions are met.

Lebanon’s opportunity

“Lebanon can rewrite its future ... but it has to be a fundamental change,” he said.

“There is so much potential in Lebanon and if you can bring back opportunity and jobs - and through economic and legal reforms in the country - I think that the future is very bright,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Hezbollah is not trying to control the politics and remember that Hezbollah is just an arm of Iran” which “should not be imposing its political will in Lebanon, Israel should not be imposing its military will in Lebanon, Syria should not. No one should. This a moment for Lebanon to make decisions for itself,” he added.