Defense Ministry: Yemeni army makes reforms

Yemen News Agency (SABA)

Yemeni Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Muhammad Nasir Ahmad Ali urged military commanders appointed recently by President Abd Rabuh Mansur Hadi to exert considerable efforts to help modernize and reform the country’s army.

Ahmad made the remarks during an April 2013 meeting with the new commanders attended by Chief of General Staff Maj. Gen. Ahmad Ali al-Ashwal and the Army’s newly appointed Inspector General, Maj. Gen. Muhammad Ali al-Qasemi.

“The Yemeni people expect the new military commanders to work hard to make a remarkable change in the process of building and modernizing the armed forces to become a national institution serving the people and the country’s sovereignty and supreme interests,” Ahmad said.

He highlighted the need to “activate the military discipline among members of the armed forces and the need for every officer and commander to take full responsibility in the spirit of teamwork to accomplish the tasks assigned to them honestly and sincerely for the sake of Yemen, its security, stability and social safety.”

“No one can stand against the powers and functions entrusted to you,” he further stressed. “Every commander must be active in his work so that the interventions, duplication and dependency end.”

Ahmad said the people, the president and supreme commander of the armed forces, as well as members of the National Dialogue Conference, are “pinning great hopes on the new military commanders to embody national unity in the ranks of the armed forces and upgrading its qualitative performance at different levels.”