Saudi authorities have on Tuesday arrested a naturalized Yemeni-born Saudi businessman, after he had exposed a dangerous behind-the-scenes scheme to cut off large parts of the Yemen’s eastern regions.
Saudi media quoted a security official in Jeddah as saying that police had arrested a Yemeni expatriate who had organised a large meeting in Saudi Arabia and spoke of necessary actions to improve the situation of expatriates.
The official was referring to Gamal Bakhshwin, a Hadhramauti businessman, who appeared at a conference sponsored by the Saudi government a few days ago in which hundreds of people from Yemen’s eastern provinces participated in a plan to keep Yemen’s oil-rich regions under Saudi guardianship in the future.
Bakhshwin said during the conference that he “received a mandate from higher authorities” in Saudi Arabia to start a naturalisation process for the people of the eastern provinces, as part of arrangements to annex this region into Saudi Arabia directly. The area includes the provinces of Shabwah, Hadhramaut and Mahrah, which are only sparsely populated but extremely rich in natural resources and strategically located.
The conference has provoked furious reactions across Yemen, even from within pro-Saudi forces. This response has likely surprised Saudi authorities and prompted them to act
The arrest marks a possible Saudi attempt to cool the popular anger across Yemen, which has already reached a point at which Saudi forces Socotra have been subjected to attacks.