US gov. hails Yemeni leadership [Archives:2003/652/Local News]

Sanaa – US Ambassador to Yemen H.E. Mr. Edmund Hull praised in a press interview with official weekly 26-September Yemen's leadership represented by President Ali Abduallah Saleh. He described President Saleh's actions as wise and successful in security and development fields, resulting in enhancing stability in the whole region.
The ambassador stressed that the US government gives the Republic of Yemen special attention and works on packages that would provide Yemen with aid to develop remote areas such as Marib, al-Jawf and Sada'a.
Mr. Edmund Hull had previously described those areas as possible havens for terrorist elements due to lack of developmental projects. This resembles the ambassador's viewpoint that there can be “no security without development and no development without security.”
The three mentioned governorates witnessed a recent wave of attempts to purchase all light weapons possibly to limit the number of weapons significantly, hence increase stability and enhance security.
A tribal source said that Saudi Arabia stands behind this recent action to buy weapons and asserts that it has nothing to do with the USA.
It is worth noting that Yemen has almost one tenth of the world's light weapons estimated at around 60 million pieces of arms distributed mainly in tribal and rural areas throughout the country.
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