Ahmed Ali Saleh, the son of slain former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has intensified his political efforts to garner the support of senior members of his father’s National People’s Congress in an attempt to inherit the family’s political legacy.
His efforts coincide with the role played on the field by his cousin and the late president’s nephew, Tareq Saleh, in avenging the Houthis.
On Saturday, Ahmed Ali had held talks at his Abu Dhabi residence with two senior Congress members, who hailed him for supporting the uprising his father led against the Houthi militias.
Ali Abdullah Saleh had in December announced that he was severing ties with the Iran-backed militias, a move that cost him his life as the Houthis assassinated him a few days later.
The two officials, Naji Jomaan and Fahd Dahshoush, had vowed to follow in the late Saleh’s footsteps and implement his will that included a call to eliminate the Houthis, restore stability in Yemen and return it to the Arab fold.
Jomaan is a senior member of the Bani Harith tribe north of the capital Sanaa. He had taken part in Saleh’s revolt against the Houthis, which cost his two sons their lives in ensuing clashes with the militias. The Houthis had tried to lure Jomaan to join their ranks, but he managed to flee the capital to Abu Dhabi.
Dahshoush is a prominent tribal leader in the Haja province. He had departed to Cairo three years ago as part of a wave of Congress leaderships that had refused to join the ranks of or ally with the Houthis.
In first hostile remarks against the Houthis, Ahmed Ali hailed “the heroic national stances and roles played by Sheikh Jomaan and Sheikh Dahshoush and the sacrifices they made for the revolution and republic,” revealed sources.
Ahmed Ali had sought in the past five months to take advantage of social occasions to achieve rapprochement with various Yemeni officials.
His efforts prompted calls by senior Congress officials to the concerned United Nations Security Council committee to drop his name from a sanctions list. Ahmed Ali is currently barred from travel and his assets have been frozen.
Former Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qarba had demanded in a tweet UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths to lift the sanctions, which would positively impact his peace mission in the war-torn country.
