28 January 2010

Unity, Stability Are Urgent Priorities for Yemen

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — Bringing unity and stability to Yemen is an urgent priority for the United States and the nations in the Middle East region, but ending corruption, internal conflict and strife and improving the rights of women in Yemen are also crucial, says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“The United States is intensifying security and development efforts with Yemen,” Clinton said at a briefing in London January 27.

“We are encouraged by the government of Yemen’s recent efforts to take action against al-Qaida and against other extremist groups. They have been relentlessly pursuing the terrorists who threaten not only Yemen but the Gulf region and far beyond,” Clinton said. “By doing so, they have earned the support and cooperation of the international community.”

Clinton attended an international security conference, hosted by the British government, in London January 27. The Yemen security conference, chaired by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, included leaders from 21 nations and five international organizations and discussed political and economic issues that face the country.

Miliband said that Yemeni authorities have agreed to pursue a significant reform agenda and to begin talks with the International Monetary Fund. Second, Miliband said that the Gulf Cooperation Council agreed to host a meeting to further discuss reform priorities. And the international community has agreed to work closely with Yemeni authorities in the fight against the terrorist group al-Qaida and its web of affiliates.

In addition, the nations attending the conference agreed to help Yemen with broader security measures, including support for the Yemen Coast Guard. And a “Friends of Yemen” process was launched to partner with Yemen and address its broad political, economic and social needs, Miliband said.

The two-hour security conference was called following the failed Christmas Day 2009 terror attack by a Nigerian man on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam that was about to land in Detroit. The 23-year-old Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, spent time in Yemen, and federal authorities indicate that is where he received training for the terrorist attack.

Helping Yemeni authorities increase their ability to adequately address security threats is regarded as vitally important to prevent the country from becoming a failed state that could become a safe haven for international terrorist groups. But the foreign leaders also believe it is essential to help Yemen through long-term engagement to deal with the other challenges it faces. Yemen must deal with substantial economic issues, the depletion of natural resources, demographic challenges, a diminishing water table and issues of governance.

Clinton said the United States has signed a three-year umbrella assistance agreement worth $121 million with Yemen and is also providing another $70 million in military assistance. Yemen’s foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, was in Washington January 21 for consultations with Clinton in advance of the London security summit.

“We expect Yemen to enact reforms, continue to combat corruption and improve the country’s investment and business climate,” Clinton told reporters in London.

Al-Qirbi said during the London press briefing that the “most important thing about Yemen commitments now is that they came out as a result also of a collaborative effort with donors and not only by Yemen alone. This commitment also stems from our belief that challenges we are facing now cannot be remedied unless we implement this agenda of reforms.”

Clinton is also in London to attend an international conference on Afghanistan, and President Obama felt the two meetings were of such importance to U.S. national security interests that he asked her to attend even though it meant she would not be in Washington for his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 27.

For progress to be made in Yemen, it must be based on a full partnership, she said. The United States and the other countries and international institutions at the London conference, Clinton said, “are committed to working with Yemeni leaders to secure the country’s borders, deny safe haven to terrorists, promote unity, protect human rights, advance gender equity, build democratic institutions and the rule of law, and implement democratic and political reform.”

“Insecure borders and internal political conflict fuel instability by opening space for terrorists — both homegrown and foreign — to organize, plot and train,” Clinton said in prepared remarks for the security conference.

Yemen has struggled with terrorists for some time, even though the al-Qaida term has not been used until recently. The first known attack inspired by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, al-Qaida’s leader, took place in December 1992 at a hotel in Aden where U.S. troops were staying.

In October 2000, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole was attacked by a suicide bomber while the ship was in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 U.S. sailors and the two terrorists.

A follow-up meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Group of Eight nations and Yemen’s neighboring nations will be held February 27–28 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The meeting will analyze barriers to effective assistance for Yemen and discuss priority reforms. The Gulf Cooperation Council is a political and economic union composed of six Arab nations — the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar.