Al-Humayqani, first Yemeni to be included in Arab terrorism list

Some people were stunned when the member states of the Anti-Terrorism Quartet, namely Egypt; Saudi Arabia; the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, included Yemeni preacher Abd al-Wahhab al-Humayqani in their list of terrorist figures on June 9, 2017.

The only Yemeni national in the list of 59 figures, al-Humayqani appeared repeatedly on Saudi news channels. He was one of the staunchest backers of the Saudi Arabia-led alliance that fights the Houthis in Yemen.

Al-Humayqani works an advisor to Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. He is an opponent of the Iran-backed Houthi militia which turned against Hadi on December 21, 2014, and seized power in Yemen. He also works as the secretary-general of the Salafist al-Rashad Party which was founded in 2012.

He worked as a research assistant at Iman University in Yemeni capital Sanaa. The university was founded by Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood branch in Yemen.

Al-Humayqani also worked as a mufti and a researcher at the Ministry of Endowments in Qatar. He also worked as the head of the local branch of the Geneva-based al-Karama Foundation for Human Rights.     

In December 2013, a report of the US Department of the Treasury accused al-Humayqani of financing and backing al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula, which had been on the US list of terrorist groups since 2010.

Soon after the release of the report, al-Humayqani said his opposition to US drone strikes in some parts of his country brought him American wrath.

Al-Karama Foundation had earlier released a report about the victims of the American strikes in Yemen and then referred the report to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He then met Hadi who told him that his government had already protested against the report of the US Department of the Treasury. Hadi said Yemenis needed to be tried inside their country in case they were the target of similar accusations.

The Yemeni president also refused the handover of the secretary-general of al-Rashad Party to the US.

Al-Humayqani was a member of the Yemeni National Dialogue which kicked off in Sanaa on March 18, 2013. The dialogue lasted for ten months, until January 25, 2014. All of Yemen's political forces participated in it.

Al-Humayqani represented the legitimate Yemeni government as part of the delegation participating in the Roundtable meetings which were sponsored by the UN in Geneva in June 2015.

Terrorism list

After al-Humayqani was included in the list of 59 terrorists by the member states of the Anti-Terrorism Quartet, his party issued a statement in which it expressed astonishment. Al-Humayqani, the party said in the statement, is a Yemeni political figure who participated effectively in defending legitimacy in Yemen against the Houthi coup. It said he was also one of the most outstanding backers of Saudi efforts to counter the Iranian expansion in Yemen.

The party also appealed to the leaders of the four states to remove al-Humayqani from the terrorism list. It expressed readiness to negotiate with concerned agencies in the four states to reach a settlement to the problem and clarify the realities to them.

Al-Humayqani lives in Saudi capital Riyadh together with his family. The al-Humayqani tribe has been fighting in Az Zahir District in al-Bayda Province alongside the troops of the Saudi-led alliance since the alliance started its operations in Yemen in 2015.

However, the members of the tribe reportedly pulled out of battles after al-Humayqani was accused of terrorism. This helped the Houthi rebels to gain ground and make victories in the areas the members of the tribes left.

Al-Humayqani is famous for calling on Salafist preachers to drop the requirement of performing the weekly Friday prayer at mosques.

The prayer can be performed at home, in case performing it at the mosques will endanger the safety of worshippers, he wrote on his Facebook page on October 28, 2017.

His comment followed the killing of 17 Salafist preachers in Aden.