Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 28 February 2018

Saudi military leaders replaced

amid stalemated war in Yemen

By JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia re-
placed its military chief of staff and other defense of-
ficials early on Tuesday morning in a shake-up appar-
ently aimed at overhauling its Defense Ministry during
the stalemated and ruinous war in Yemen.
The kingdom also announced a new female deputy
minister of labor and social development as it tries to
broaden the role of women in the workplace.
Saudi Arabia made the announcement in a flurry of roy-
al decrees carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
As with many announcements in the ultraconservative
Sunni kingdom, it was short on details.
King Salman "approved the document on developing
the Ministry of Defense, including the vision and strat-
egy of the ministry's developing program, the opera-
tional pattern targeting its development, the organi-
zational structure, governance and human resources
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, right, welcomes Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for requirements," one statement said.
Europe and Foreign Affairs for the talks in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Le Drian is in That restructuring was part of a "multi-year effort," Prince
Moscow to discuss a humanitarian crisis in Syria where a Russia-ordered cease-fire came into Faisal bin Farhan, a senior adviser at the Saudi Embassy
effect earlier on Tuesday.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) in Washington, wrote on Twitter.
Prominent among the personnel changes was the firing
Russia-ordered 'pause' fails to ease suffering of military chief of staff Gen. Abdulrahman bin Saleh
al-Bunyan. Another announcement said the general
By SARAH EL DEEB the Syrian government. also fear their region would would become a consultant to the royal court.
ZEINA KARAM Russia ordered the daily meet the same fate as the Al-Bunyan was replaced by Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamid
Associated Press truce, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. eastern, rebel-held half of al-Rwaili, who once had been the commander of the
BEIRUT (AP) — A five-hour local time, to begin Tues- the city of Aleppo, where Royal Saudi Air Force, among the nation’s premier mili-
truce ordered by Syria's day. A so-called corridor a similar Russian-ordered tary forces.
Russian allies to allow civil- through a crossing point pause in 2016 called on Also appointed as an assistant defense minister was
ians to flee a besieged, op- manned by the Syrian mili- residents to evacuate the Khaled bin Hussain al-Biyari, the CEO of the publicly
position-held enclave near tary was set up through area and for gunmen to traded mobile phone and internet service provider
Damascus failed to result which residents could lay down their arms. A full Saudi Telecom Co.
in aid deliveries or medi- leave, but no civilians used ground assault followed, The decisions come as the Saudi-led coalition, chiefly
cal evacuations Tuesday, it and many said they finally bringing Aleppo un- backed by the United Arab Emirates, remains mired in
while deadly airstrikes and feared harassment or arrest der the control of forces a stalemate in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest coun-
shelling continued in the re- if they go into government loyal to Syrian President try. Over 10,000 people have been killed in the war in
gion. areas after years of living in Bashar Assad. which Saudi-led forces back Yemen’s internationally
The U.N. and aid agen- the rebel-controlled area. "People are still in shelters. recognized government against Shiite rebels and their
cies criticized the unilateral "Anyone would face a They didn't leave it be- allies who are holding the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and
arrangement for a daily number of dangers at any cause they have no con- much of the north of the country.
"humanitarian pause" an- moment if they step into fidence in the Russian and The kingdom faces wide international criticism for its air-
nounced by Russian Presi- Damascus, either by arrest Syrian governments," said strikes killing civilians and striking markets, hospitals and
dent Vladimir Putin, saying or by questioning family Firas Abdullah, an opposi- other civilian targets. Aid groups also blame a Saudi-
it gave no guarantees of members. ... We in Ghouta tion activist from Douma, led blockade of Yemen for pushing the country to the
safety for tens of thousands we have no way out," said one of the largest towns in brink of famine. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
of residents of eastern Gh- Nemaat Mohsen, who lives eastern Ghouta about 20 the heir to the throne after his father King Salman, is
outa, where they have in the town of Saqba in kilometers (12 miles) from the Saudi defense minister and architect of the Yemen
been trapped for weeks eastern Ghouta. the center of Damascus. war.q
under intense attack by The enclave's residents q