If ever anyone was in doubt that powerful forces have been bent on derailing Yemen’s transfer of power and transition from an autocracy to a vibrant civil state, Tuesday’s attack against the head of Yemen’s constitution-drafting committee should act a blatant proof.
Ismail al-Wazir, a former minister and well-respected legal expert as well as politician was targeted by a group of unidentified armed men as he was traveling through the capital, Sana’a in a two-car convoy. While al-Wazir is believed to be unharmed three members of his team, among whom his son, succumbed to their wounds.
An official told the press in a statement, “Committee chief Ismail al-Wazir escaped an assassination bid that targeted his two-vehicle convoy.”
At this stage state officials have refused to further comment on the matter or theorized on whether al-Qaeda could be to blame for the targeted assassination.
This new attack against one of Yemen’s most senior official comes a day after President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi received at the presidential palace the entire Constitution Drafting Committee to express his keenness to see the country move swiftly ahead without further delays.
"The Yemeni people are weary of renovations to the Yemeni house and there must be a new construction on a new reality and a new system of rule that keeps pace with the requirements of the Yemeni people ", the president noted at the meeting, calling for reforms which will match NDC representatives’ recommendations.
While it is of course difficult to make assumptions at this stage, political analysts have warned that the targeting of al-Wazir appeared to be politically motivated and less so terror orientated. While of course an al-Qaeda connection is not to be dismissed, al-Wazir’s death would have unlikely advance terror militants’ agenda in Yemen, especially since terror militants have proven to be more interested in challenging the military than politicians, safe from the alleged plan to target President Hadi.