Newly-appointed US ambassador to Sanaa, Edmund Hull, said Wednesday that Yemen will not be targeted by US-led forces as part of a global anti-terror campaign.
Asked whether Yemen was a target, Hull was quoted by AFP as saying: "Absolutely not. In the war against terrorism, Yemen is a partner, not a target."
Hull was addressing a group of US citizens, many of them of Yemeni origin, who had gathered at the embassy in Sanaa to meet the new envoy and "discuss the security situation in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States."
The ambassador urged American citizens to be cautious and exercise good personal security, the US embassy said in a statement cited by AFP.
He expressed his "gratitude to the Yemeni government, which is doing its utmost to protect all Americans in Yemen," it added.
Yemen has launched a crackdown on "Arab Afghans" in the country believed to have links to Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, Washington's prime suspect in last month's attacks on New York and Washington, according to AFP.
Bin Laden has also been linked to a suicide attack against the destroyer USS Cole in Aden port in southern Yemen last October in which 17 American servicemen died.
Hull’s comments came in the wake of growing fears that Iraq may be also be targeted by the US-led coalition against Afghanistan aimed at capturing Bin Laden and toppling the Taliban regime.
Jordan’s King Abdullah had said earlier this week that he had been assured by President George W. Bush that neither Iraq nor any other Arab country will be targeted by the coalition, but the White House later dismissed the Jordanian monarch’s statements as “inaccurate” – Albawaba.com
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