WASHINGTON // Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen's president, is not unfamiliar with throwing a curveball. Throughout his 33 years in power, he has done so a number of times in attempts to try to unite and hold together his fractious country.
Now he has done it again with his request to receive medical treatment in New York.
The request certainly seems to have taken the US administration - still officially considering it - by surprise, and has put it in a quandary: either the US rejects a long-time and much-lauded ally in the American war on Al Qaeda, or the administration risks being seen as sheltering a leader held responsible for killing hundreds of demonstrators.
So adept at muddying the waters is Mr Saleh that it is not clear if he is even seeking medical attention.
At a press conference in Sanaa on Saturday he denied it, saying his health was fine.
"I will go to the United States, not for treatment, because I'm fine, but to get away from attention, cameras, and allow the unity government to prepare properly for elections," he said. "I want to be away for the elections, because whether it fails or succeeds, people may blame the president."
That only made the situation more difficult for the US, as US officials have said they would grant Mr Saleh permission to enter the country for the sole purpose of seeking medical treatment.
One important component in the US calculation would be to what extent granting Mr Saleh permission for what may in effect turn out to be asylum could help or hinder a transition of power in Yemen. Here too, however, the picture is anything but clear. Saleh loyalists and relatives continue to play significant roles in the Yemeni regime.
Should the US conclude that taking in Mr Saleh would somehow ease a transition, as Mr Saleh seemed to hint at, the Obama administration would still want to be sure that he didn't use sanctuary in the US as a way to influence events back home.
Moreover, the administration would then have to consider how it would respond to any uproar in Yemen, where the immunity granted Mr Saleh under the Gulf Cooperation Council agreement that saw him step from power has proven deeply controversial.
Edmund Hull, a former US ambassador to Yemen, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that the US would have to decide whether the "possibility of a short-term gain" was worth the "distinct probability" of a long-term problem.
For now, the administration has kicked the problem down the road. The State Department said Mr Saleh's request would have to go through the normal process and "only at the end of this internal review process will a final visa adjudication be made".
But, of course, the request is anything but normal, something the US media has been quick to point out.
In 1979, the administration of Jimmy Carter granted the exiled shah of Iran permission to enter the US for medical treatment. The decision worsened relations with Iran, then in the throes of revolution.
When Iranian students later stormed the US embassy in Tehran, Mr Carter's refusal to send the shah back to Iran for trial led to 52 Americans being held hostage for 444 days.
Ronald Reagan used the hostage situation in easily defeating Mr Carter's bid for reelection in 1980.
With an election year looming, Barack Obama, the US president, will be keen to avoid a similar situation. Yet he will also have to balance that against rumbling discontent among some on the foreign policy circuit in Washington that his administration has been too hasty in casting aside old allies in favour of the uncertainty of the Arab Spring.
Ultimately, the administration may have to fall back on a Yemen policy shaped almost entirely by counter-terrorism priorities. Mr Obama may have been granted a Nobel Peace Prize in the early stages of his presidency, but policy on Yemen - as on Iraq and Afghanistan - has been characterised by a willingness to continue and even expand policies of the previous administration of George W Bush.
Notably, Mr Obama's administration has expanded the practice of unmanned drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan, of dubious status under international law. Mr Obama ordered the killing of Anwar Al Awlaki in Yemen, a US citizen on foreign soil, prompting sharp criticism from American human-rights groups.
Such logic would dictate that any decision about allowing Mr Saleh into the country would be determined by the significance the administration attaches to Mr Saleh's past support for the US fight against Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Other factors are the role to be played by those loyalists and relatives who will remain in Yemen in significant positions and how it may affect future US freedom of action in a country that, without Mr Saleh, may not be quite as amenable to US drone attacks on its soil.
okarmi@thenational.ae
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
THE SPECS
Range Rover Sport Autobiography Dynamic
Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 518bhp
Torque: 625Nm
Speed: 0-100kmh 5.3 seconds
Price: Dh633,435
On sale: now
ABU DHABI ORDER OF PLAY
Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
Veronika Kudermetova v Annet Kontaveit (10)
Maria Sakkari (9) v Anastasia Potapova
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova v Ons Jabeur (15)
Donna Vekic (16) v Bernarda Pera
Ekaterina Alexandrova v Zarina Diyas
No more lice
Defining head lice
Pediculus humanus capitis are tiny wingless insects that feed on blood from the human scalp. The adult head louse is up to 3mm long, has six legs, and is tan to greyish-white in colour. The female lives up to four weeks and, once mature, can lay up to 10 eggs per day. These tiny nits firmly attach to the base of the hair shaft, get incubated by body heat and hatch in eight days or so.
Identifying lice
Lice can be identified by itching or a tickling sensation of something moving within the hair. One can confirm that a person has lice by looking closely through the hair and scalp for nits, nymphs or lice. Head lice are most frequently located behind the ears and near the neckline.
Treating lice at home
Head lice must be treated as soon as they are spotted. Start by checking everyone in the family for them, then follow these steps. Remove and wash all clothing and bedding with hot water. Apply medicine according to the label instructions. If some live lice are still found eight to 12 hours after treatment, but are moving more slowly than before, do not re-treat. Comb dead and remaining live lice out of the hair using a fine-toothed comb.
After the initial treatment, check for, comb and remove nits and lice from hair every two to three days. Soak combs and brushes in hot water for 10 minutes.Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay.
Courtesy Dr Vishal Rajmal Mehta, specialist paediatrics, RAK Hospital
Abu Dhabi GP weekend schedule
Friday
First practice, 1pm
Second practice, 5pm
Saturday
Final practice, 2pm
Qualifying, 5pm
Sunday
Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps), 5.10pm
Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
LIKELY TEAMS
South Africa
Faf du Plessis (captain), Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Lungi Ngidi.
India (from)
Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
Has helped solve 15 cases of electric shocks
Enjoys travelling, reading and horse riding
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
Indian origin executives leading top technology firms
Sundar Pichai
Chief executive, Google and Alphabet
Satya Nadella
Chief executive, Microsoft
Ajaypal Singh Banga
President and chief executive, Mastercard
Shantanu Narayen
Chief executive, chairman, and president, Adobe
Indra Nooyi
Board of directors, Amazon and former chief executive, PepsiCo
UAE-based players
Goodlands Riders: Jamshaid Butt, Ali Abid, JD Mahesh, Vibhor Shahi, Faizan Asif, Nadeem Rahim
Rose Hill Warriors: Faraz Sheikh, Ashok Kumar, Thabreez Ali, Janaka Chathuranga, Muzammil Afridi, Ameer Hamza
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
Sunday's games
Liverpool v West Ham United, 4.30pm (UAE)
Southampton v Burnley, 4.30pm
Arsenal v Manchester City, 7pm
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Co%20Chocolat%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Iman%20and%20Luchie%20Suguitan%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Food%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241%20million-plus%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Fahad%20bin%20Juma%2C%20self-funding%2C%20family%20and%20friends%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Result
UAE (S. Tagliabue 90 1') 1-2 Uzbekistan (Shokhruz Norkhonov 48', 86')
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29 – Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30 - UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1 - UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2 – Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4 - Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6 – Final
More coverage from the Future Forum
The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Transmission: seven-speed auto
Power: 420 bhp
Torque: 624Nm
Price: from Dh293,200
On sale: now
PROFILE BOX
Company name: Overwrite.ai
Founder: Ayman Alashkar
Started: Established in 2020
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai
Sector: PropTech
Initial investment: Self-funded by founder
Funding stage: Seed funding, in talks with angel investors
Day 2, stumps
Pakistan 482
Australia 30/0 (13 ov)
Australia trail by 452 runs with 10 wickets remaining in the innings
