UN General Assembly
2011

democratic principles and coupled with various civil institutions that promoted and respected human rights. However, those who wished narrow, individual and partisan interests to prevail did not support that historic achievement. Therefore, they tried to stir up trouble, using the conflicts and mistakes made in Yemen in the early days of our unified State, as well as the challenges to development — the uncontrolled population growth, the prevailing poverty, the lack of national resources, increasing drought and desertification, and the scarce water and oil resources, which were the main source of income. All those factors have made it impossible for thousands of university graduates to find employment, which has led to social and political tensions and frustration. But all the opposition forces used the tidal wave of change witnessed by Arab countries to prevent Yemen from achieving democratic change through elections. However, we respected young people’s demand for change and started a dialogue with them in order to meet their demands for reform. We have created tens of thousands of jobs in order to alleviate unemployment.