Yemen to stand firm in fighting terrorism, says President Saleh

ROME, Nov 23 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh affirmed Yemen’s stance towards terrorism and the importance of cooperation with the international community in fighting that phenomenon, saying that Yemen has suffered from terror before September 11 events in the U.S.A. He said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera published on Monday that Yemen participates with the international community in fighting terrorism because it has suffered from it before the September 11 attacks. He cited the attack on the U.S. destroyer USS Cole at the Aden port, sayingthat it negatively affected tourism and investment in Yemen. Asked whether the Yemeni government could balance between fighting terrorism and keeping its relations with the Islamic groups since Yemen has deep Islamic roots, Saleh said that every Muslim is not extremist or convinced with the acts of Bin Laden or al-Qaeda. “There are a few persons who commit terrorist acts and in Yemen we have independent and political parties have their political programs and donot want to effect Yemen interests,” Saleh said. President Saleh added that “every religion in the world has extremists,there are Christian and Jewish extremists and the Islamic extremists who went to Afghanistan and are called al-Qaeda or Jihad. He said those groups western goods. “America had made and used them during the Cold War for fighting communism in Afghanistan and it is wrong to prove that extremism is only in the Islamic religion.” Asked about whether Yemen felt sorry for that fact that Bin Laden was of Yemeni origin, Sahel said “we are not sorry for Bin Laden’s Yemeni origin. Every country has good and bad persons. Bin Laden caused a number of economic and social problems in the world and he must stand trial.” On a question over democracy in Yemen, Saleh said that “this ear is the era age of democracy and Yemen has arranged itself with the international changes and we have taken the way of freedom, respecting human rights and the peaceful exchange of the power.” “There is no conflict between democracy,respecting human rights and fighting terrorism,” President Saleh said. JW/KM SABA