“We face a common threat posed by the terrorists and Al-Qaeda but our partnership goes beyond counterterrorism,” Clinton said in a statement after about two hours of talks with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“We are focused not just on short-term threats but long-term challenges,” she added as Saleh stood beside her. “We support an inclusive political process that will in turn support a unified, prosperous, stable, democratic Yemen.”
The US Embassy in Sanaa said Clinton was in Yemen for a half-day visit “bearing the message of a 'long-term partnership.'”
Clinton, who is on a five-day tour of the Arabian Peninsula, met Saleh for talks and lunch under heavy security at the presidential palace in this ancient city renowned for its ornate mud-brick buildings.
The Yemeni embassy in Washington released a statement saying: “Yemen is keen on continuing bilateral discussions to address development and security challenges.”
Washington is anxious for Yemen, next door to the world’s top oil exporter, to step up its fight against an Al-Qaeda wing based in the Arabian Peninsula state where militants have attempted ambitious attacks against US and Western targets.
Clinton was in Sanaa seeking to convey to the Yemeni government the urgency of defeating Al-Qaeda’s ideology by promoting long-delayed economic and political reforms.
“It’s not enough to have military-to-military relations,” Clinton said before the talks. “We need to try to broaden the dialogue. We need to have this dialogue with the government.”
Yemen-based Al-Qaeda militants, engaged in hit-and-run attacks on Yemeni forces in recent months, have also grabbed the focus of Washington with failed plots to bomb cargo planes in October and to blow up a US passenger jet in 2009.
Washington has been quietly ramping up its role in Yemen, hoping to stop the slide toward state failure in a country also facing separate domestic rebellions in the north and south in addition to an Al-Qaeda resurgence.
But the United States is also acutely aware that too big of a footprint could exacerbate fierce anti-American sentiment in Yemen and undermine Saleh’s already weak central government.
Clinton said Yemen recognized the threat posed by Al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based arm and “has become increasingly committed to a broad counterterrorism strategy.”
US-Yemen relations have, however, been strained by Washington’s desire for a quicker pace of economic and political reforms, which it hopes would slow recruitment by militants, an aide to US President Barack Obama said last month.
Clinton was not expected to bring any new aid to the table in Sanaa, but said Washington was seeking to rebalance its $300 million aid package, now weighted in favor of security and military assistance.
Speaking later at a town-hall meeting, Clinton said she was in Yemen to show the United States shared its commitment in the fight against Al-Qaeda and other extremists who posed a threat in the country and beyond.
But she stressed it was a joint vision for a unified, stable, democratic and prosperous Yemen where civil society had the room to operate, but Al-Qaeda did not.
