Lobbying 2016: Yemen turns over Washington lobbying to Saudis

Impoverished and ravaged by civil war, Yemen has largely turned over its diplomatic activism to Saudi Arabia since its much richer neighbor launched operations to restore President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

The Yemeni Embassy in Washington is headed by Ambassador Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, Hadi’s former chief of staff. Mubarak was briefly kidnapped by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in January 2015, and has described the experience as “worse than being killed.”