From Human Rights Watch, April 7:

Yemen: Investigate Laws-of-War Violations
Government and Huthi Rebels Should Hold Perpetrators Accountable
The Yemeni government and Huthi rebels should investigate alleged violations of the laws of war during the recent conflict and hold all those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. On February 11, 2010, both sides agreed to a truce - the sixth since the war began in 2004, but the agreement contains no accountability provisions.

Turkish politician and Kurdish rights activist Leyla Zana was sentenced April 8 to three years in prison for spreading terrorist propaganda. Zana was convicted by a court in the city of Diyarbakir for two speeches delivered at a Kurdish political congress in 2008. Zana has previously been convicted for spreading propaganda under Turkey's anti-terrorism laws, most recently facing a 10-year sentence in 2008 for supporting the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK). She remains free pending appeal.

Saudi Arabia announced the arrest March 25 of more than 100 in a supposed al-Qaeda plot to target the kingdom's oil infrastructure. One cell consisted of 101, and two smaller cells were made up of six men each, the Interior Ministry said. The large cell comprised 47 Saudis and 51 Yemenis, as well as a Somali, a Bangladeshi and an Eritrean, according to the statement read on state television. The two smaller groups were made up of 11 Saudis and a Yemeni, who security officials described as being a prominent member of al-Qaeda.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syria's President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah met in Damascus Feb. 25, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV reported. This was the first time a Nasrallah visit to Damascus has been reported. Al-Manar did not say whether Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal, who is based in Damascus, took part in the meeting.

A Sana'a government official said Jan. 27 that Yemen will build a rehabilitation center for transfered Guantánamo Bay detainees. According to the anonymous official, Yemen will begin building once it receives funding for the $11 million project promised by the US. The project will presumably be discussed this week at a London meeting intended to garner international support for counter-terrorist efforts in Yemen. (Jurist, Jan. 27)

The US is set to hold talks with European and Arab partners in London on Jan. 27 to build support for a drive to defeat the perceived growing al-Qaeda threat in Yemen. The impetus for the meeting comes from the failed Christmas Day jetliner bombing by a Nigerian passenger allegedly trained by the Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Hillary Clinton will likely attend the London meeting, which comes days after the United Kingdom raised its terrorism threat assessment from substantial to severe.

A group of prominent Muslim clerics warned Jan. 14 they will call for jihad, or holy war, if the US sends troops to fight al-Qaeda in Yemen. The group of 15 clergymen includes the highly influential Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, who is deemed a spiritual mentor of Osama bin Laden by the US but who is courted by the Yemeni government for his important backing. "If any foreign country insists on aggression and the invasion of the country or interference, in a military or security way, Muslim sons are duty bound to carry out jihad and fight the aggressors," the clerics said in a statement.

A member of Abu Dhabi's ruling family was found innocent Jan. 10 of the torture and rape of an Afghan national. The judge reading the verdict at a court in the United Arab Emirates, the world's third largest oil exporter and a US ally, gave no reason why Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan was exonerated of responsibility for abuse shown in a video first made public on the ABC network last year. But a lawyer for the sheikh, a son of UAE founder Sheikh Zayed, said his client was found to have "diminished liability" because two former business associates had drugged him and taken the video to extort money. The two men, Lebanese-American brothers Bassam and Ghassan Nabulsi, were sentenced to five years in absentia and fined 10,000 dirhams ($2,723) for blackmail.