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YemenOnline >> Politics 
Bush assistant for counterterrorism arrives in Yemen following Yemen FM statement on Yemeni-US “strained” ties
Sana’a, June 12, 2008 (YemenOnline) – “President Ali Abdullah Saleh received on Thursday Kenneth L. Wainstein assistant to President Bush for homeland security and counterterrorism who handed him a letter from President Bush on Yemeni-U.S. relations and cooperation in combating terror,” state news agency said.
President Bush asserted U.S. keenness to expand relationships and cooperation with Yemen.
President Bush also confirmed U.S. support for Yemen’s democracy, development and stability.
President Saleh discussed with the American official ways to enhance partnership between the two countries in varied fields in addition to the conditions of Yemeni detainees held in Guantanamo detention and Yemen’s request to extradite them as well as the program Yemeni prepared to reintegrate Guantanamo returnees.
They also discussed the issue of Sheikh al-Mo’ayad and his companion Zaid, who were sentenced to 75 and 45 years in jail respectively in the U.S. for allegedly providing financial support to terrorist groups, and Yemen’s request to release them.
Foreign Minister, Dr. Abu al-Qirbi, told AP on Monday that Yemen's constitution bars the country from handing over two al-Qaeda suspects Jamal al-Badawi and Jaber Elbaneh, commenting that this issue has strained relations between the two nations.
Al-Qirbi, said the two suspects' case was "behind the crisis in Yemen-U.S. relations" but that he hopes it can be resolved through dialogue so that relations can "return to their normal course."
The two suspects are Jaber Elbaneh, a Yemeni-American convicted of planning attacks on oil installations in Yemen, and Jamal al-Badawi, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the 2000 bombing of USS Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors.
Al-Qirbi said he had canceled a recently planned visit to the U.S. because he didn't want it to focus on the al-Qaeda suspects rather than other pressing issues, such as economy and development.
He denied U.S. accusations that Yemen has been lenient with the two after a court here commuted al-Badawi's death sentence to 15 years in prison.
Al-Qirbi also added that Yemen has told the United States it was prepared to retry the suspects if Washington supplied evidence on them to Yemen.
In April U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller arrived in Yemen after two attacks claimed by al-Qaeda that targeted the U.S. embassy and a compound housing Americans in the capital Sana’a.
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