President Saleh made history this week by not attending the Arab Summit after being the first Arab leader to call for it. The way he made history is because no Arab leader has ever declined to attend a summit after openly calling for one.

Speculations on why Saleh declined to attend are very clear, as most observers feel that it was due to Saudi pressure. When Saleh apologized for not attending the Gaza Summit in Doha, nearly all political observers automatically knew that Saudi was behind it, so they somewhat excused Saleh.

Sources informed the Yemen Post that Saudi Arabia threatened to make Yemen regret if it attended the Doha Summit. Knowing that, who cares if Saleh went or not, we are talking as if he would have made a difference if he attended the summit. Him not attending made the summit end ten minutes earlier.

Saleh knows that if he attended he would have lost billions of dollars in support from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. So, as the year goes on, we can expect those two countries to grant Yemen large amounts of financial support, and soften its approach towards Yemen joining the Gulf Council (GCC).

* Editor-in-Cheif could be reached at:  editor@yemenpost.net