Yemeni Threat Pushed up US Agenda
December 30, 2009 by Trend PK
Filed under Breaking News
WASHINGTON: What can Washington do to face down a growing threat posed to US national security by al-Qaeda’s affiliates in Yemen? After a failed bomb attack on a US airliner last week, this question is soaring up the national security agenda.
Barack Obama, the president, has pledged to use “every element” of US national power to hunt down those who threaten America’s safety. While the Yemeni affiliate of al-Qaeda – known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) – risks becoming a significant threat to western security, Washington’s policy options are far from simple.
The risk posed by al-Qaeda in Yemen has long been of concern to western intelligence services. In 2000 Yemeni suicide bombers killed 17 people when they struck the USS Cole. The US waged a largely successful counter-terrorism campaign over the next three years, using unmanned drones to kill key operatives. But in the past three years AQAP has been thriving again in eastern Yemen, amid the ravages of its civil war.
Today western intelligence chiefs believe the risk posed by Yemeni jihadism has become especially serious. About 100 Yemenis have been held in the Guantánamo Bay detention centre since 2002. Yemen’s foreign minister said last year that the country hosted 1,000 al-Qaeda militants. These jihadists have claimed responsibility for a range of attacks, notably the attempted assassination of Prince Mohammed bin Naif, the Saudi deputy interior minister, in August.
As Mr Obama examines his options, one possibility can be ruled out: there will be no US invasion of Yemen to echo those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Most political strategists believe that US public opinion would not tolerate such a move. But Richard Fontaine, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think-tank in Washington, also believes it is unnecessary.
“After 9/11, the US had to invade Afghanistan because it faced a Taliban government that was totally hostile to America and with whom no deals could be done,” he says. “In Yemen you have a weak government led by President Ali Abdullah Saleh with an array of problems. But you do have the possibility of partnering that government to face down al-Qaeda militants.”
Boosting such a partnership is certain to be a key goal for the US. Washington already gives security and intelligence support to Mr Saleh’s government – and may have provided such help for two air strikes conducted by Yemeni forces on December 17 and 24.
However, such cooperation might only go so far, amid signs that Mr Saleh’s government is not as determined to take on al-Qaeda as Washington would like. “There’s a problem of will and a problem of capacity,” says Mr Fontaine.
The next few weeks are almost certain to see European Union governments pressing the US to take a different tack: focusing on trying to boost the economic and political conditions in Yemen in order to ensure that it does not become a breeding ground for jihadism.
European diplomats believe that no matter what is achieved on the security front in the short-term, Yemen’s long-term economic problems guarantee that it could become a failed state over time. Its petroleum output will fall to zero by 2017 and its water resources are running dry, according to analysts. Meanwhile, Yemen’s population will double by 2035.
Yemeni Threat Pushed up US Agenda was first posted on December 30, 2009 at 3:42 pm.
Arrested Pak Nationals In Saudi Areb Reach Home Tomorrow
JEDDAH: Pakistan’s Ambassador to Saudi Arab, Umar Khan Alisherzai said he will have a meeting today with Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Assistant Minister for Security Affairs of Saudi Arab to settle the details of returning the Pakistanis arrested here in drug trafficking case.
Talking to Geo News Umar Khan Alisherzai said that he will meet with the released Pakistanis today.
He said that the Pakistanis performed Ummrah on Saturday.
Prince Mohammed bin Nayef has decided to send them back home by a special plane and that the Pakistanis have been released on the basis of special relationship between Pakistan and Saudi Arab, he added.
Arrested Pak Nationals In Saudi Areb Reach Home Tomorrow was first posted on September 27, 2009 at 4:12 pm.
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