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Letter to ‘New Silk Road Lady’ Helga Zepp-LaRouche
from Yemen’s Foreign Minister

March 2017

Helga Zepp-LaRouche

March 8, 2017 (EIRNS)—The Chairman of the Yemeni Advisory Office for Coordination with BRICS Fouad Al-Ghaffari published the following short statement on social media today, including a screenshot of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s interview with Chinese English TV (CCTV) in 2015.

“On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the New Silk Road Lady, Helga Zepp-LaRouche received a letter sent to her by Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Engineer Hisham Sharaf, in appreciation of her call for making Yemen a pearl in the necklace of the New Silk Road. In response, Mrs. LaRouche has expressed her appreciation of this letter, and reiterated the Schiller Institute’s principled position of standing with the people of Yemen against this destructive war, and for the return of the national dialogue to find a political solution for the crisis in Yemen, and embark on the process of reconstruction and development and integrating Yemen in the maritime and land New Silk Roads.”

EIR can confirm the receipt of a letter from Yemen’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hisham Sharaf Abdullah, dated March 1, addressing Mrs. LaRouche as the “New Silk Road Lady” and Chairwoman of the International Schiller Institute. Mr. Sharaf expressed his gratitude for Mrs. LaRouche and her “international team around the world” who have taken a great stance in support of the people of Yemen against “the murderous Saudi-Emirati aggression machine.” This stance, he stressed, combined with her persistent call on Yemen to adopt the BRICS paradigm and turning Yemen into a “pearl in the necklace of the New Silk Road,” have represented a powerful motivation for the Yemeni people to win the battle they are leading, and prepare the launching of the process of reconstruction and building of the country.

Fouad al-Ghaffari

Mr. Sharaf is a member of the new national government cabinet in Sana’a, Yemen, which was voted by the Yemeni Parliament last November. Since 2011 Mr. Sharaf has served as deputy and minister in several ministries. According to Wikipedia, he holds a civil engineering degree, which he received from Pennsylvania State University in 1983. He obtained a Master’s degree in projects administration, with a minor in the computer field from Catholic University of America in 1988.

The UN does not recognize the national government in Sana’a as the representative of the Yemeni people, but recognizes the President-in-Saudi-exile, Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, as president. Hadi’s term had ended when he fled to Saudi Arabia, where he was used as an excuse to launch the genocidal bombardment of Yemen in March 2015. Hadi was not elected by the people of Yemen, but was appointed by the Parliament for a limited term in the midst of a chaotic political situation in the country.