Opposition slams Nov 3 US-strike [Archives:2002/47/Local News]

SANA’A -The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) said in a joint statement issued last Monday that the US attack assassinating 6 Yemenis and the official silence of the government represents a clear testimony that national sovereignty was undermined.
The JMP blasted the U.S. missile strike calling it a violation of Yemen’s sovereignty.
In the statement, the Islamist Islah Party, the Yemen Socialist Party and the Nasserite Unionist Popular Party also slammed the government silence on the assassinations.
Analysts said the criticism was unlikely to affect the pro-Western government, backed by the ruling General People’s Congress which controls parliament, but that it may become an issue in general elections in April 2003.
“Yemen’s silence in this regard confirms an official collusion to squander national sovereignty and the blood of Yemenis,” said the opposition statement, issued after a meeting in the capital Sanaa.
The six were killed when their car exploded in Yemen’s eastern Marib province on November 3. Yemeni authorities refused to comment on the cause of the blast, but U.S. officials said a rocket fired from an unmanned CIA drone was responsible.
The JMP has also called upon the parliament to shoulder its responsibilities more efficiently and express its strong opposition to the government’s actions in undermining the country’s national sovereignty and condemn Prime Minister Abdulqader Ba Jammal’s statements published in the Hayat Arabic daily mentioning that Yemen is not in control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait and Yemeni territorial waters.

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