Lobbying 2016: Yemen turns over Washington lobbying to Saudis

Impoverished and ravaged by civil war, Yemen has largely turned over its diplomatic activism to Saudi Arabia since its much richer neighbor launched operations to restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

The Yemeni Embassy in Washington is headed by Ambassador Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, Hadi’s former chief of staff. Mubarak was briefly kidnapped by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in January 2015, and has described the experience as “worse than being killed.”

The ambassador has kept a relatively low profile since taking his post in July 2015, however. Yemen is one of the few Middle East countries that hasn’t hired any lobbyists to advance its interests in Washington, leaving the Saudis and their massive public relations team to handle the media amid rising concerns about the civilian death toll and the political stalemate in the country since Riyadh launched Operation Decisive Storm at Hadi’s behest in March 2015.

In a blow to Hadi and his Saudi supporters, the United Nations’ top human rights official on Aug. 25 revived a proposal to have an international inquiry into possible war crimes by the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthis and their supporters. Congress and the Obama administration have also begun to run out of patience, especially as US arms sales to Saudi Arabia have made Washington a locus of worldwide anger at the operation.