US SECRETARY of state Hillary Clinton has paid an unannounced visit to Sanaa with the aim of underpinning Yemen’s campaign against al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, which has based itself there in recent years.
“We face a common threat posed by the terrorists and al-Qaeda, but our partnership goes beyond counterterrorism,” she said yesterday.
“We’re focused not just on short-term threats but long-term challenges. We are committed to a balanced approach toward Yemen, which includes social, economic and political assistance.”
Mrs Clinton, the first US secretary of state to visit Yemen in 20 years, said the US sought to tackle the causes of extremism, including poverty, inequality and division, as well as terrorism.
Mrs Clinton met President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a pan-Arab nationalist who opposed the US wars on Iraq and involvement in Somalia. He has also been critical of Washington’s policy on Israel and the Palestinians.
According to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, he granted the US an “open door” to pursue al-Qaeda in his country, but he has since restricted US operations in order to head off criticism from domestic opponents.
The president was recently embarrassed by the publication of an exchange with US Gen David Petraeus who was allegedly told by Mr Saleh that Yemen, rather than the US, would take credit for US missile strikes on al-Qaeda.
A broad approach is far more acceptable to Yemenis who are preoccupied with a secessionist struggle in the south and a tribal rebellion in the north. They have been reluctant to become embroiled in Washington’s escalating military offensive against al-Qaeda elements in Yemen.
Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world. Mountainous and desert regions where the government has little control are ruled by tribal chiefs who have given refuge to al-Qaeda units.
Washington came to consider al- Qaeda elements based in Yemen a direct threat to US security only when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a young Nigerian trained in Yemen, attempted to blow up a civilian airliner over the midwestern US city of Detroit on December 25th, 2009.
He is believed to have been recruited by Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born radical preacher of Yemeni origin, who is said to be based in Yemen’s inaccessible mountains.
Mr Awlaki may also have prompted Nidal Malik Hasan, a US officer of Palestinian origin, to attack colleagues at a military base in Texas in November 2009, killing 13 and wounding 32. In October 2010, two packages containing explosives originating in Yemen were discovered on cargo aircraft bound for the United States.
Yemen, homeland of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, has long been a threat. It was an early base for the movement which carried out its first operation in Aden in 1992 by staging simultaneous attacks on two hotels, killing an Australian tourist.
The movement’s presence in Yemen was not taken seriously until a 2000 strike on the USS Cole, a destroyer, while refuelling in Aden harbour. Seventeen US sailors were killed and 39 injured.
