He said the war on Iraq has brought chaos, not long-waited reformSaleh blasts US war [Archives:2003/647/Front Page]

President Ali Abdullah Saleh said in an interview with Lebanon's Future TV aired last Saturday that the US-led war in Iraq has brought chaos instead of promised reform to Iraq.
“What we see now after the end of Saddam's regime is not stability and quiet in Iraq, but … robbery, rape, looting, assassinations and absence of security,” Saleh said.
Furthermore, President Saleh also blasted the way the coalition forces handled post-war Iraq. “Almost three months have passed and there is no hope or indication of security and stability in Iraq,” he said in the interview that was held during his trip to France and Germany last week.
However, the President also said that the fall of Saddam's regime should be an example for other Arab leaders, who are still not allowing democracy in their countries.
Saleh blamed the “administrative vacuum” in Iraq for the almost daily attacks against US and UK forces in the country.

Al-Mayad's case discussed
In Germany, he met with officials ahead of a court decision on a US request to extradite Mohammad Ali Hassan Al Moayad, a former Yemeni lawmaker arrested in Germany in January, and his aide, Mohammad Mohsen Yahya Zayed, to face terrorism charges. US officials suspect Al Moayad of supplying millions of dollars, recruits and weapons to Al Qaeda terror network leader Osama Ben Laden in the years before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Yemeni government has asked Germany to return both men to Yemen as the government is discussing the men's fate with US officials.
On the other hand, the President said that a plan to open an FBI office in Yemen was in line with the war on terror, but did not mean there would be a permanent US military presence in the country.
According to the AP, FBI agents have been living in Yemen since the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 US soldiers. US agents have also been providing counterterrorism training to Yemeni forces. But the presence of US military forces in Arab countries has been generally rejected by most Arabs and was cited by Osama bin Laden as a reason for his terror campaign against America.
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