Abdel-Wahab Humaygani was included in the Hadi delegation over objections of the U.S. He has been on a U.S. blacklist of terrorists since 2013. Humaygani is accused by the U.S. of planning a series of car bombings in 2012 that killed seven people. He is also accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of using charity fronts to fund Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula(AQAP). He denies this and other charges and insists he is simply a politician and member of the National Dialogue faction. The U.S. has sanctioned Humaygani, frozen his assets and will sanction anyone who does business with him. This apparently excludes the Hadi government. The Hadi government in exile is strongly backed by the Saudis and the GCC. Under Saudi leadership a bombing campaign was begun back in March to restore Hadi to power. The U.S. supports the campaign and has provided logistic and surveillance support.
Humaygani has advice for the U.S. He suggests the U.S. strengthen Yemeni state institutions rather than continue with drone strikes, which he claims only helps AQAP recruitment and advances terrorism. The U.S. is not about to take his advice and has just recently killed a deputy leader of AQAP in a drone strike. The Saudi-led bombing has not targeted AQAP, which in alliance with Sunni tribes is one of the main forces confronting Houthi advances. AQAP has vastly extended the area it controls during the conflict. Humaygani denies his charities help Al-Qaeda but rather aid “orphans, mosques, and poor families.” He said he personally opposed Al-Qaeda for killing outside the law.
Humaygani says he is willing to meet U.S. officials and has asked for a meeting at the US embassy. The US embassy refused to comment. The embassy was forced to leave Yemen some time ago. He even told reporters in Geneva that he was willing to face a court of law should the Treasury Department lay charges against him. No doubt he will be quite safe since the US would not want to reveal anything about its methods and may not have the type of evidence that could ever stand up in a court. He said: “I don’t have any objections to going on trial here in Yemen to defend myself against any charges — even if it’s from the American Treasury. I’m the secretary general of a political party, and I live here in Sanaa, I’m a member of the National Dialogue.”
The U.S. should hardly be worried about a member of an Al-Qaeda organization being on the same side as the U.S. The U.S. has approved a move by the Saudis and Turkey to fund a group in Syria that contains the Al Nusra front that is the official Al-Qaeda representative in Syria. Indeed, the U.S. is apparently leaning towards re-branding the Al-Nusra front as moderates since they are successful in fighting the Islamic State and Assad. Not long ago the U.S. bombed the group when they started the bombing campaign against the Islamic State. Times can change quickly. After all, some time ago many of these jihadist groups were freedom fighters funded by the CIA who fought against an Afghan regime supported by the Evil Empire.
As shown on the appended video the peace talks have ended with no cease fire. Ban Ki-moon had hoped that the two sides would agree to a humanitarian cease fire for at least two weeks during Ramadan. While the talks were said to be constructive, it is not clear what positive outcomes there are.
