Sana'a: Al Qaida militants operating from Yemen are an urgent concern for Washington and eradicating them is a priority, Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday in the first visit to Sana'a by a US Secretary of State in 20 years.
Washington is anxious for Yemen, next door to the world's top oil exporter, to step up its fight against an Al Qaida wing based in Yemen, where militants have attempted ambitious attacks against US and Western targets.
"I want to be frank. There are terrorists operating from Yemeni territory today, many of whom are not Yemeni, some of whom I'm sorry to say are American citizens. So this is an urgent concern for both of us," Clinton told a civil society gathering in Sana'a following talks with Yemen's president.
"They have sought to attack our country. And I know they have caused death, injury and destruction in Yemen. So stopping these threats would be a priority for any nation, and it is for the United States," she added.
Grassroots level
Clinton was in the Arabian peninsula state to convey to the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh the importance of fighting Al Qaida at its grassroots.
"It's not enough to have military-to-military relations," Clinton said before roughly two hours of talks with Saleh.
"We need to try to broaden the dialogue. We need to have this dialogue with the government."
Yemen-based Al Qaida militants, engaged in hit-and-run attacks on Yemeni forces in recent months, have also grabbed the focus of Washington with failed plots to bomb cargo planes in October and to blow up a US passenger jet in 2009.
Clinton said Washington and Yemen now increasingly had "a very strong partnership" on counter terrorism.
She did not bring any new aid to the table in Sana'a, but said Washington was seeking to rebalance its $300 million aid package, now weighted in favour of security and military assistance, to give more weight to civilian aid. "We face a common threat posed by the terrorists and Al Qaida but our partnership goes beyond counterterrorism," Clinton said in a statement after talks with Saleh.
"We are focused not just on short-term threats but long-term challenges," she added as Saleh stood beside her. "We support an inclusive political process that will in turn support a unified, prosperous, stable, democratic Yemen."
Later at a townhall meeting, Clinton described as "my hero" a young Yemeni girl who broke with tribal tradition to obtain a divorce two years ago, as she spoke at a town-hall meeting in Sana'a.
"I want to acknowledge one of my heroes, Nujood Ali, who is with us today," Clinton said. Ali was married off as a 10-year-old to a considerably older man and forced to drop out of school. Ali took the stand in court, aided by her human rights lawyer Shada Nasser, and was granted a historic divorce.
"She was one of the many, many young girls in Yemen who wanted to continue her education. Today Nujood is back in school where she belongs and i really see her as an inspiration."
