Ahmed Attia

The new Yemeni minister of endowments, Ahmed Attia, vowed to punish owners of Yemeni Haj and Umrah companies, who have violated Haj and Umrah regulations.

“I confirm that the coming phase will be a corrective one to address the corruption that has spread in the ministry, and we will not accept any excessive negligent behavior,” he told Al-Riyadh newspaper.

To owners of Yemeni tourism companies, he said, “Enough playing around with the Yemeni pilgrims and the peoples’ desire to worship!”

He said the Ministry of Endowments is one of the most important ministries because it oversees the religious heritage and worship of people, and after passing through phases of obvious corruption, especially in the endowments and Haj and Umrah sector, he was handed the ministry in a critical stage.

He said the ministry has six sectors, and with an unstable government and the ongoing acts of rebel forces that do not wish well for the Yemeni people or its government institutions, the priority will be to deal with the situation wisely until legitimacy is resumed in Yemen and the situation remedied.

“I am not new to the ministry, and working in endowments is easier than working in justice, and we seek to turn the coming Haj seasons into leisurely pilgrimage trips where Yemeni pilgrims are not tired out from delays at ports, delays on the part of tourist agencies, or poor services,” he continued.

“This will require firmness and cooperation with the agencies, which are important partners of the ministry, and we must put in place an implementation study so the Yemeni pilgrim will be a model.”

He said the ministry will continue to work with concerned authorities in Saudi Arabia, which assisted in the transport of 20,000 Yemeni pilgrims, noting that the relationship with Saudi Arabia has surpassed cooperation in Haj and Umrah affairs, and concerns the defense of rights and legitimacy.

[vuukle]