 Through 2012, troops have been approved to battle the al-Shabaab insurgents.On February 22, 2012, The U.N. also voted to increase the number of authorized troops to 17,700 from 12,000 and to expand the scope of the mission.Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh met separately with both TFG and ICU representatives respectively on December 5 and December 6 to see if rapprochement might be possible between the parties.