FOREIGN
RELATIONS
The geography
and ruling Imams of north Yemen kept the country isolated from
foreign influence before 1962. The country's relations with Saudi
Arabia were defined by the Taif Agreement of 1934, which delineated
the northernmost part of the border between the two kingdoms and
set the framework for commercial and other intercourse. The Taif
Agreement has been renewed periodically in 20-year increments,
and its validity was reaffirmed in 1995. Relations with the British
colonial authorities in Aden and the south were usually tense.
The Soviet
and Chinese Aid Missions established in 1958 and 1959 were the
first important non-Muslim presence in north Yemen. Following
the September 1962 revolution, the Yemen Arab Republic became
closely allied with and heavily dependent upon Egypt. Saudi Arabia
aided the royalists in their attempt to defeat the Republicans
and did not recognize the Yemen Arab Republic until 1970. Subsequently,
Saudi Arabia provided Yemen substantial budgetary and project
support. At the same time, Saudi Arabia maintained direct contact
with Yemeni tribes, which sometimes strained its official relations
with the Yemeni Government. Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis found
employment in Saudi Arabia during the late 1970s and 1980s.
In February
1989, north Yemen joined Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt informing the
Arab Cooperation Council (ACC), an organization created partly
in response to the founding of the Gulf Cooperation Council, and
intended to foster closer economic cooperation and integration
among its members. After unification, the Republic of Yemen was
accepted as a member of the ACC in place of its YAR predecessor.
In the wake of the Gulf crisis, the ACC has remained inactive.
Yemen is not a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
British
authorities left southern Yemen in November 1967 in the wake of
an intense terrorist campaign. The people's democratic Republic
of Yemen, the successor to British colonial rule, had diplomatic
relations with many nations, but its major links were with the
Soviet Union and other Marxist countries. Relations between it
and the conservative Arab states of the Arabian Peninsula were
strained. There were military clashes with Saudi Arabia in 1969
and 1973, and the PDRY provided active support for the DHOFAR
rebellion against the Sultanate of Oman. The PDRY was the only
Arab state to vote against admitting new Arab states from the
Gulf area to the United Nations and the Arab League. The PDRY
provided sanctuary and material support to various international
terrorist groups.
Yemen
is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, and the organization
of the Islamic conference. Yemen participates in the nonaligned
movement. The Republic of Yemen accepted responsibility for all
treaties and debts of its predecessors, the YAR and the PDRY.
Yemen has acceded to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. The
Gulf crisis dramatically affected Yemen's foreign relations. As
a member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for 1990 and 1991,Yemen
abstained on a number of UNSC resolutions concerning Iraq and
Kuwait and voted against the "use of force resolution."
Western and Gulf Arab states reacted by curtailing or canceling
aid programs and diplomatic contacts. At least 850,000 Yemenis
returned from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
Subsequent
to the liberation of Kuwait, Yemen continued to maintain high-level
contacts with Iraq. This hampered its efforts to rejoin the Arab
mainstream and to mend fences with its immediate neighbors. In
1993, Yemen launched an unsuccessful diplomatic offensive to restore
relations with its Gulf neighbors. Some of its aggrieved neighbors
actively aided the south during the 1994 civil war. Since the
end of that conflict, tangible progress has been made on the diplomatic
front in restoring normal relations with Yemen's neighbors. The
Omani-Yemeni border has been officially demarcated. In the summer
of 2000, Yemen and Saudi Arabia signed an International Border
Treaty settling a 50-year-old dispute over the location of the
border between the two countries. Yemen settled its dispute with
Eritrea over the Hanish Islands in 1998.
U.S.–YEMEN
RELATIONS
The United States established diplomatic relations with the Imamate in 1946. A resident legation, later elevated to embassy status, was opened in Taiz (the capital at the time) on March 16, 1959 and moved to Sanaa in 1966. The United States was one of the first countries to recognize the Yemen Arab Republic, doing so on December 19, 1962. A major U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program constructed the Mocha-Taiz-Sanaa highway and the Kennedy memorial water project in Taiz, as well as many smaller projects. On June 6, 1967, the YAR, under Egyptian influence, broke diplomatic relations with the United States in the wake of the Arab-Israeli conflict of that year. Secretary of State William P. Rogers restored relations following a visit to Sanaa in July 1972, and a new USAID agreement was concluded in 1973.
During
a 1979 border conflict between the Yemen Arab Republic and the
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, the United States cooperated
with Saudi Arabia to greatly expand the security assistance program
to the YAR by providing F-5 aircraft, tanks, vehicles and training.
George Bush, while Vice President, visited in April 1986, and
President Ali Abdullah Saleh visited the United States in January
1990. The United States had a $42 million USAID program in 1990.
From 1973 to 1990, the United States provided the YAR with assistance
in the agriculture, education, and health and water sectors. Many
Yemenis were sent on U.S. Government scholarships to study in
the region and in the United States. There was a Peace Corps program
with about 50 volunteers. The U.S. Information Service operates
an English-language institute in Sanaa.
On December
7, 1967, the United States recognized the People's Democratic
Republic of Yemen and elevated its Consulate General in Aden to
embassy status. However, relations were strained. The PDRY was
placed on the list of nations that support terrorism. On October
24, 1969, south Yemen formally broke diplomatic relations with
the United States. The United States and the PDRY reestablished
diplomatic relations on April 30, 1990, only 3 weeks before the
announcement of unification. However, the embassy in Aden, which
closed in 1969, was never reopened, and the PDRY as a political
entity no longer exists.
In 1990, as a result of Yemen's actions in the Security Council following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the United States drastically reduced its presence in Yemen including canceling all military cooperation, non-humanitarian assistance, and the Peace Corps program. USAID levels dropped in FY 1991 to $2.9 million, but food assistance through the PL 480 and PL 416 (B) programs continued through 2006. In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture provided 30,000 metric tons of soybean meal that were sold for approximately $7.5 million to finance programs in support of Yemen’s agricultural sector.
The United States was actively involved in and strongly supportive of parliamentary elections in 1993 as well as the 2006 presidential and local council elections, and continues working to strengthen Yemen's democratic institutions. The USAID program, focused in the health field, had slowly increased to $8.5 million in FY 1995, but ended in FY 2000. It was reinvigorated in 2003 and a USAID office has re-opened in Sanaa. Yemen has also received significant funding from the Middle East Partnership Initiative. Funds went, in large part, to support literacy projects, election monitoring, training for civil society, and the improvement of electoral procedures.
Defense relations between Yemen and the United States are improving rapidly, with the resumption of International Military Education and Training assistance and the transfer of military equipment and spare parts. In FY 2006 U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Yemen was $8.42 million, International Military Education and Training (IMET) was $924,000, and Non-Proliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining and Related Programs (NADR) was $1.4 million. In FY 2006 Yemen also received $7.9 million in Economic Support Funds (ESF), $10 million in Food for Progress (Title 1) assistance, and $5 million in Section 1206 funding.
In November 2006, a World Bank-sponsored international donors conference held in London raised $4.7 billion for Yemen's development; the funds are to be disbursed between 2007 and 2010.
Currently, Yemen is an important partner in the global war on terrorism, providing assistance in the military, diplomatic, and financial arenas. President Ali Abdullah Saleh visited Washington, DC, in November 2001. Since that time, Yemen has stepped up its counter-terrorism cooperation efforts with the United States, achieving significant results and improving overall security in Yemen. President Saleh returned to Washington in June 2004 when he was invited to attend the G-8 Sea Island Summit. The Summit was an excellent forum for Yemen to share its democratic reform experiences, and it has agreed to participate in future activities detailed in the Sea Island charter. In November 2005 and May 2007, President Saleh again visited high-level officials in Washington, including President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Principal U.S. Officials
Ambassador--Stephen A. Seche
Deputy Chief of Mission--Angie Bryan
Chief, Political, Economic, and Commercial Section--Andrew Mitchell
Chief, Public Affairs Office--Ryan Gliha
The address of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen is P.O. Box 22347, Sanaa, Republic of Yemen.
