Aftandilian in TRTWorld on the Saudi-UAE Rift
Gregory Aftandilian, Lecturer at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was interviewed for a recent article on the rift between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the ongoing conflict in Yemen.
Aftandilian was quoted in an August 26, 2019 article in TRTWorld entitled “Saudi-UAE Rift in Yemen Further Endangers Yemenis.”
From the text of the article:
The government’s request to expel Abu Dhabi can also be looked at as a demonstration of its loyalty to Riyadh. “It shows that President Hadi is beholden to Saudi Arabia for political and economic support,” Gregory Aftandilian, a lecturer at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies and a former US State Department Middle East analyst, told me.
“Even though [Hadi] is originally a ‘southerner,’ [he] is strongly opposed to [the] Southern Transitional Council and its attempts to create a separate state,” the non-resident fellow at Arab Center Washington DC added.
Aftandilian spent over 21 years in government service, most recently on Capitol Hill where he was foreign policy adviser to Congressman Chris Van Hollen (2007-2008), professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and foreign policy adviser to Senator Paul Sarbanes (2000-2004), and foreign policy fellow to the late Senator Edward Kennedy (1999).