Inheritance battle brewing for Yemeni political control
The late Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh left behind wealth estimated at $32 billion to $60 billion, but an even bigger fortune is up for grabs politically.
Despite failing peace agreements and continued fighting in Yemen, participants and observers are looking ahead and wondering who will ultimately control Yemen's most powerful political party, the General People's Congress (GPC).
Elite GPC members have long called for the United Nations to lift international travel sanctions levied in 2015 on Ahmed Saleh, the eldest son of the party's founder, the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The latter was ousted in 2012 and killed by Houthi rebels in December 2017.
The son, who lives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), had been sanctioned for allegedly obstructing peace efforts in Yemen. The UN last month lifted some of the restraints and unfroze the Saleh family's massive assets. In 2014, UN experts estimated the family fortune at $32 billion to $60 billion.
Another of the late president's sons, Khalid Saleh, will continue to manage their father's unseized wealth abroad. Meanwhile, the Houthis have their hands on the majority of the Saleh family assets in Yemen.
