With the clashes between government forces
and opposition tribesmen pushing the country to the brink of civil war,
former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Edmund Hull has said that such a
situation could make Yemen a 'safe haven' for al Qaeda operatives, much
in the same way as Afghanistan was before the 9/11 terror attacks.
Talking about America's concern over the prevailing situation in Yemen,
Hull, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Yemen from 2001 to 2004, said that
the main fear was that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which
is playing the most active role in the al Qaeda network today, is based
in Yemen, CBS News reports. He also stressed that this organisation had targeted the US twice-initially with the underwear bomber on Christmas Day and then more recently the printer cartridge bombs in airplane freight.
On being asked what would be the scenario like if Yemen ended up as a failed state like Somalia, Hull said that it would be extremely dangerous.
"It would give al Qaeda a safe haven akin to that which they had in Afghanistan before 9/11. And one of the cardinal lessons that we learned from our study of the 9/11 attack was that the United States can never allow al Qaeda to create those kind of safe havens again," he added.
Meanwhile, speculations have been raised that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh could be losing his grip on power after he was injured in an attack on Friday following an attack on his palace.
At least six guards were killed and eight top officials were also wounded. (ANI)
