On the two French hostages in Yemen

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has announced that the Yemeni authorities know the identity of the kidnappers of a French couple that was abducted in Yemen and that there is no need to have fears for them.

AFP said that in a press conference the Yemeni president considered the kidnapping of the French couple as falling in the course of works which aim at misrepresenting Yemen and undermining the tourism industry in the country.

He added that the kidnappers are known and that they are chased by the police.

The French couple Henri Herbe, who is the French attache of the French embassy in Yemen, and his wife, an archaeology expert, were kidnapped last Friday by al-Jaber tribe in Serwaj district, East Yemen. The tribe asked the Yemeni authorities for financial compensation in order to release the two.

Kidnaping foreign tourists in Yemen is often done in order to pressure the authorities. Often, such kidnapping operations end peacefully.

Meanwhile, tribal sources in Yemen said that Yemeni forces headed for an area where tribesmen are holding the French diplomat and his wife in an attempt to release them.

On Monday contacts continued between the French and Yemeni authorities over the French couple who were kidnapped by a Yemeni tribe on August 20.

A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said that nothing is new in this matter.