Yemen’s path forward

Three years into Yemen's civil war, the country continues to face severe humanitarian devastation and political turmoil against the backdrop of complex regional geopolitics. An intensification of fighting, particularly in Hodeidah, has made Yemenis increasingly war-weary and anxious to see an end to the conflict. What are the prospects for U.N.-led negotiations to end fighting and restore the peaceful transition interrupted three years ago?

The Middle East Institute (MEI) is pleased to host a half-day conference to assess priorities for ending the conflict and potential future scenarios.

AGENDA

1:20pm | Welcome Remarks
Ambassador (ret.) Gerald Feierstein
Director of government relations, policy and programs, MEI

1:30-2:30pm | Yemen’s internal political and security challenges
H.E. Ambassador Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak
Ambassador of Yemen to the United States
Sama’a al-Hamdani
Founder, Yemeniaty
Timothy Lenderking
Deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of Near East Affairs, U.S. Department of State 
Amb. (ret.) Gerald Feierstein (moderator)
Director of government relations, policy, and programs, MEI

2:30-3:00pm | Coffee Break

3:00-4:00pm | Post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction priorities
Bruce Abrams
Deputy assistant administrator, Middle East bureau, USAID
Abdulrahman al-Eryani
Independent economic development specialist
Latifa Jamel
Chairperson, Justice for Women and Children
Andrea Prasow
Deputy Washington director, Human Rights Watch
Marcia Biggs (moderator)
Special correspondent, PBS NewsHour

4:00pm | Closing

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Bruce Abrams
Deputy assistant administrator, Middle East bureau, USAID
Bruce Abrams assumed duties as deputy assistant administrator in USAID’s Middle East Bureau in January 2017. His portfolio includes USAID programs in Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, the technical support team and the Middle East Regional Platform. Abrams joined the Middle East bureau after serving as deputy mission director in USAID Zimbabwe. He has been a USAID Foreign Service Officer since 1999, having served as a Democracy, Rights and Governance Officer in Colombia (2000-03), Iraq (2004), Egypt (2004-09) and Peru (2009-13), before serving as Deputy Mission Director Zimbabwe (2013-16). In 2013, he was promoted to the senior foreign service. Prior to joining the USAID foreign service, Abrams was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Hungary and a contractor with USAID Missions in Hungary and Serbia.

Abdulrahman al-Eryani
Independent economic development specialist
Abdulrahman al-Eryani is an economic development specialist. He worked between 2013 and 2018 as the principal economic officer at the Embassy of Yemen. In that capacity, al-Eryani focused on development assistance and economic reform projects with bilateral organizations, international NGOs, and multilateral organizations based in Washington D.C. al-Eryani has advised the leaderships of various Yemeni government agencies, including the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, Ministry of Finance, and Central Bank of Yemen. al-Eryani has participated in conferences and spoken regularly on development issues related to Yemen and the Middle East. He holds a master’s degree in finance from Johns Hopkins University.

Sama’a al-Hamdani
Founder, Yemeniaty
Sama'a al-Hamdani is an independent researcher and analyst focusing on Yemen. She is currently a visting fellow at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University and a research fellow at the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies (SCSS). al-Hamdani is also the director of the Yemen Cultural Institute for Heritage and the Arts (YCIHA), a nonprofit based in Washington DC dedicated to Yemeni arts and heritage. In the past year, she has provided analysis to the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center. Her work was published in the Lawfare blog (Brookings), The National (UAE), MENAsource (The Atlantic Council Blog),  Al-Monitor,  Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Fikra Forum (The Middle East Institute Journal), The Middle East Eye, Yemen Observer, Yemen Times and several other prominent publications and academic journals. She also wrote the blog Yemeniaty.com from 2010-2015. She is a regular expert commentator on Yemen's political affairs for major international media outlets like CNN International, BBC World Service, BBC Arabic, Al Jazeera English, Al Jazeera America, RTTV Russian Television, France24, Chinese CCTV, Canadian CTV, Al Hurra News Channel, Islam Channel, and the Huffington Post Live. She was a guest on several NPR Radio programs, BBC World Service, The Voice of Russia Radio,  and Sputnik Radio. She was also a guest on several political podcasts like "Follow the Money" and the "Middle East Week." al-Hamdani was a TedxSanaa speaker in November 2013 and currently resides in Washington DC.

Marcia Biggs
Special correspondent, PBS NewsHour
Marcia Biggs is a special correspondent for PBS NewsHour, for whom she has recently won a Gracie Allen Award, a First Place National Headliner Award, and a New York Festivals World Medal. Her expertise lies in the Arab world, with over a decade of experience in the Middle East, five years of which were spent living in Lebanon.  For PBS, she covered the targeting of doctors in the Syrian civil war, the use of children in armed conflict, the looting of Syrian antiquities, as well as the plight of Syrian refugees in both the United States and the Arab World. For PBS in Iraq, she covered various stages of the battle for Mosul, documented the plight of Yazidi girls who have escaped ISIS captivity, and told the moving story of American military veterans volunteering on the front lines against ISIS.  Most recently, she became one of the few television journalists to cover the crisis in Yemen, which she did in a four part series for PBS, "Inside Yemen."

H.E. Ambassador Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak
Ambassador of Yemen to the United States
Ambassador Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak assumed his duties as the ambassador of the Republic of Yemen to the United States in August 2015. Formerly, Ambassador Bin Mubarak was the director of the presidential office and chief of staff. Prior to taking up his appointment as the director, Ambassador Bin Mubarak was appointed on January 2013 secretary general of Yemen's National Dialogue Conference (NDC), leading a team of over 120 staff facilitating the mediation process among the participating 565 delegates, and providing technical assistance to NDC working groups. Additionally, during his tenure as the NDC secretary general,  Ambassador Bin Mubarak co-chaired the steering committee of the Multi-Partner Peace Building Trust Fund. Following the successful conclusion of the NDC, Ambassador Bin Mubarak was appointed, on January 25, 2014, member and rapporteur of the Regions Committee.

Amb. (ret.) Gerald Feierstein
Director of government relations, policy, and programs, MEI
Amb. (ret.) Gerald Feierstein is director for government relations, policy and programs at MEI. He retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in May 2016 after a 41-year career with the personal rank of career minister. As a diplomat he served in nine overseas postings, including three tours of duty in Pakistan, as well as assignments in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Lebanon, Jerusalem, and Tunisia. In 2010, President Obama appointed Amb. Feierstein U.S. Ambassador to Yemen, where he served until 2013. From 2013 until his retirement, Amb. Feierstein was principal deputy assistant secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs.

Latifa Jamel
Chairperson, Justice for Women and Children
Latifa Jamel is the chairperson of Justice for Women and Children. Originally from Taiz, she is a Yemeni journalist and political activist. She served as board members in Yemen Aid, International Council of Rights and Freedoms, and Yemeni American Coalition. She previously worked as an academic advisor and head of Social Studies department in local schools within Taiz.

Timothy Lenderking
Deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of Near East Affairs, U.S. Department of State 
Timothy Lenderking is the deputy assistant secretary of state for Arabian Gulf Affairs in the Near East Bureau at the U.S. Department of State. He is a career member of the senior Foreign Service. Lenderking served previously as the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from 2013-2016. He served as the director of the Pakistan office at the Department of State from 2010-2013. From 2008-2010, Lenderking completed two tours in Baghdad, the first as the senior democracy advisor at the US Embassy, and the second as the policy advisor to LTG Charles Jacoby, commanding general of Multi-National Forces Iraq (MNF-I), based at Camp Victory. Before his Iraq tours, Lenderking served as the economic counselor and acting deputy chief of mission at U.S. Embassy Kuwait. He was also the political counselor at Embassy Rabat from 2002-2006.

Andrea Prasow
Deputy Washington director, Human Righs Watch
Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch, conducts advocacy before the U.S. government on global human rights issues. Previously, as senior national security counsel and advocate for Human Rights Watch, Prasow investigated and analyzed U.S. national security policies and practices and led advocacy efforts urging executive and legislative branch officials in Washington to implement national security policies that respect internationally-recognized rights. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Prasow was a defense attorney with the Office of Military Commissions. She served as assistant counsel for Salim Hamdan in the only contested military commission trial to date. Prasow was previously an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP in New York, where, in addition to representing large corporations in complex civil litigation, she served as habeas counsel for ten Saudi detainees at Guantanamo. Her work on behalf of Guantanamo detainees has taken her to Bahrain, Yemen and Afghanistan.

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