: re: U.N. Warns That Yemen May Collapse as Qaeda Fighters Make Big Gains

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 10:22 AM
Subject: re: U.N. Warns That Yemen May Collapse as Qaeda Fighters Make Big Gains
To: "letters@nytimes.com"

To the Editor:

     For decades, the Saudis have  backed repressive, unrepresentative Sunni client governments in Yemen. This has contributed materially to a Yemen that is today simultaneously a hotbed of al-Qaeda and a beach-head of Persian influence in Arabia. Both groups are working for the overthrow of the Saudi government.

     The coronation of king Salman is an opportunity to review, to assess, and to abandon  a policy that does not work. A stable Yemeni state--be it Sunni, Shia or secular--would serve Saudi Arabia and the world far better than the current chaos.
Barry Haskell Levine

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/world/middleeast/al-qaeda-yemen-military.html?_r=0