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Yemeni president names new trade minister due to protests

22 January 2011 20:46 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh named a new minister on Saturday after seven days of popular protests demanding the government to curb increasing commodity and fuel prices, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

Saleh marked the partial cabinet reshuffle by the replacement of Trade and Industrial Minister Yahya al-Mutawakil with Deputy Minister of Planning and International Ministry Hisham Sharaf Abdullah, according to an official decree posted on official Saba news agency’s website.

The growing popular protests have been witnessed in major Yemeni cities for seven days since the Tunisians overthrew their president last week, while local observers expect more reshuffles in the Yemeni government in the future.

Last week, Saleh suspended his oil minister and executive director of the national petroleum company over domestic crisis in fuel shortage which caused a discontent among citizens.

"Orders were issued on Wednesday to suspend Yemen’s Minister of Oil and Minerals Amir Salim al Aidrous and Executive Director of the Yemen Petroleum Company Omer al Arhabi from their positions," the oil ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

However, the statement did not explain the reason behind the shortage.

In another hasty response, the government last week announced to cut the income taxes on government employees by up to 50 percent in a bid to ease public anger.