Yemen seeks and international protection for its coasts
Yemen-Regional, Politics, 3/8/2004

Yemen has been exerting tremendous efforts to ensure the security of its coasts after western ships were exposed to attacks related to al-Qaida organization in its territorial waters.

The government seeks to ensure having loans from Italy and Poland and to get gun-ships to guard Yemen's coasts which extend along 2225 Km and overlooks the Red Sea and the Arab Sea as well as the Indian Ocean.

The Yemeni prime minister Abdul Qader Bajmal said that Yemen is in need of 700 million dollars to ensure the security of its waters and it can not save this sum, noting that the state's budget can only provide 2% of this sum.

Bajmal stressed the need of exerting international efforts to ensure the security of the country's coasts, noting that there are certain difficulties to monitoring the trade fishing boats for a distance exceeding 6 miles, and this makes imperative for the country to get the necessary means of Helicopters and a radar network.

These efforts, however, come in the context of the efforts made by Yemen to get rid off the image in which the country appears as a resort for what are called by the US as extremists, as well as to protect its national economy which was greatly damaged because of the security violation in its waters where foreign investment and tourism sector have deteriorated.

Previous Stories:
  Yemen holds back on Arab federation for strong AL reform; Settling security difference with Egypt   (2/11/2004)
  Yemen's regional conference on human rights wrapped up deliberations   (1/13/2004)
  Yemen hosts regional conference on democracy and human rights; hope for International Criminal Court   (1/12/2004)

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