Foreign Minister, Dr. Al-Qirbi: Closing US Consulate is a Temporary Measure [Archives:2001/25/Front Page]

Yemen’s Foreign Minister Dr. Abubakr Al-Qirbi considers the closure of the US Consulate in Yemen as a temporary measure that will not affect the friendly Yemeni-US bilateral relations.
In a statement to 26 September weekly Dr. Al-Qirbi said there were no reasons for closing the consulate department, but the US State Department had the right to take precautionary measures it deemed necessary, especially following the verdicts issued in New York against defendants accused of perpetrating terrorist acts.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister denied the existence of differences between Yemen and America on the progress of investigations into the USS Cole Destroyer incident, pointing that cooperation between the two countries’ competent bodies was going on within the frame of Yemeni constitution and laws.
In another development the US ambassador to Yemen has cut short the annual vacation she has been spending in Geneva, scheduled to end on June 18, and has quickly returned to Yemen to follow up the recent developments leading to closure of the consulate at her embassy in Sana’a. The US State Department earlier issued a statement advising its citizens not to travel to Yemen and authorized the departure of Embassy personnel in non-emergency positions and their families from Sana’a.
It is to be recalled that the US policy had stepped up its stand towards Yemen a month after the USS Cole blast due to the non-availability of information on the explosion’s perpetrators , in addition to its leadership’s insistence on bringing the defendants to court.

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