President: We are not soldiers for the US

SANA’A, April 19 (Saba)- In an interview with the US News Week magazine on Sunday, President Ali Abdullah Saleh affirmed that Yemen’s efforts in combating terrorism and chasing terrorists are still continuous and that Yemen has achieved big successes in this field. “There is no doubt that the al-Qaeda network has elements in Yemen, but out security forces will keep on searching for them everywhere and everyday,” Saleh said. He affirmed that the war on terror is still ongoing and those terrorists will face justice. He denied that Yemen supports Islamic extremists at the current situation contrary to that at the time of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. In reply to a question on Yemen’s obedience to the US, Saleh said ” We are not obedient soldiers of the United States. We don’t say just OK to everything that they ask us. We believe the United States of America—just like any other country—can make mistakes.” If the Americans have a bilateral deal with the Saudis, it’s up to them. We will always insist that these people should return directly to Yemen. They should give us the files on these detainees in order to send them to the court of law, Saleh noted. As for Guantanamo Bay, President Saleh said that Americans want to close Guantanamo Bay. We want to do the same thing when the law is applicable. These people, according to the law, should not be held in jail without trial. If you don’t have enough evidence that they committed a crime, they should be released. We released them after we made a thorough investigation that they were not involved in terror or any acts of violence. And we took big guarantees from their tribes, from their sheiks, to keep them under continuous control. AM/AM Saba