Canada's Foreign Minister says he wants to push aid and counterterrorism plans for Yemen onto the agenda for G8 nations as Western nations seek tools to counter extremism in a country now seen as a major staging ground for terrorism.
The link between a plot to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day and Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has highlighted terrorism threats from the poor Middle East nation.
Yesterday, Yemen's Foreign Minister, Abubakar al-Qirbi, was in Ottawa pressing for aid for education and economic development, which he said would help the country combat extremism and terrorism.
His Canadian host, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon, said he asked Canadian officials co-ordinating plans for the G8 meetings in Canada later this year to put Yemen on the agenda of a planning session to be held this week in Quebec City.
"As co-ordinator of the G8 ... I have asked for my political director to raise the issue of counterterrorism at that meeting, and see how we can best move forward," Mr. Cannon said. He added that he would seriously consider Mr. al-Qirbi's request for more bilateral aid, and had asked officials to find ways to improve co-operation.
Yemen, the poorest nation in the Arabian peninsula, says that addressing poverty would help counter radicalization, and that the country needs help coping with the problem at the same time as it musters military efforts to fight al-Qaeda.
"This is part and parcel of our fight against terrorism," Mr. al-Qirbi said.
Western nations are already stepping up their attentions to Yemen, with Britain's Prime Minister convening a one-day international conference on the country next week, just before the opening of a similar conference on a better-known terrorism centre, Afghanistan.
But just as in Afghanistan, where there are concerns that corruption in Hamid Karzai's government is hurting efforts to defeat Taliban insurgents, some critics have suggested that backing Yemen's weak and undemocratic government would only fuel al-Qaeda's argument that the West, caring only for its own interests, allies itself with repression in Muslim nations.
Mr. Cannon said Canada does not believe that supporting Yemen's government could be counterproductive.
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Cannon seeks to get Yemen on G8 agenda - The Globe and Mail
