Press Release
A Statement from the Foreign Minister on the USS Cole Investigation
H.E. Abdulkader Bajammal, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs in an interview with the Associated Press, published in the New York Times on December 04, 2000, said: "Yemen wants to work closely with the United States to combat terrorism".
In referring to the October 12th bombing of the USS Cole in Yemeni waters, Mr. Bajammal said that: "the operation was not Yemeni, not pure Yemeni"..."It is a network involving so many countries. Terrorism has no nation".
"If any Yemenis are found to have been involved, they may have simply been corrupted bureaucrats who provided logistical help in exchange for payoffs ... not out of idiology. We are a victim of terrorism, not a source of terrorism", Bajammal added.
Mr. Bajammal told the AP that "Terrorism did not appear by accident. It is a historical phenomenon. Just as the Soviet Union created a man like (the International Terrorist) Carlos, the other side created the Afghan Arabs. We have inherited the remnants of the Cold War".
The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister expressed the Yemeni willingness for stronger ties with the United States, and he hoped for more and broader agreements with the USA. He said that Yemen needed U.S. technology, equipment and training to strengthen security and fight terrorism".
December 05, 2000
Embassy of the Republic of Yemen
Washington, D.C.
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