President Saleh to participate in G-8 Summit

SANA’A, June 3(Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh would head next week for Georgia to participate in the G-8 Summit scheduled from the 9th to the 10th of June at Sea Island, Georgia.The 26 September weekly quoted Foreign Minister Abdu-Baker al-Qerbi as saying, leaders of G-8 countries invited president Saleh to participate in the summit. The leaders of Bahrain and Jordan have also been invited the summit. Yemen’s invitation to attend for first time the summit comes within the G-8 countries desire to hear the Arab view over the American initiative to reform Middle East in the political, economic fields as well as human rights, democracy and woman role in society, al-Qerbi said.Yemen was invited to the summit because it considers one of the first countries that adopted the political and economic reform in addition to its active role in human rights and democracy that proved by the latest decree of President Ali Abdullah Saleh which abolish arresting journalists for speech issue.By holding the conference of democracy, human rights and the role of ICC in Sana’a as well as the conference of young democracies Yemen becomes a regional activist country in human rights and democracy. Al-Qerbi added.He added that Yemen initiative to reform Arab League made the G-8 leaders consider that Yemen would be an important partner. Furthermore, president Saleh would talk on the main Arab issues on top of them are the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Iraqi issue.He also said that president Saleh would head for New York before arriving to Georgia to met the General Secretary of UN Kofi Anan and would hold talks with American officials regarding the Yemeni-American cooperation. JW/TNSABA