Yemen steps up efforts to locate Saudi diplomat
Saudi Gazette - 04 August, 2012
Yemen has intensified efforts to free kidnapped Saudi diplomat Abdullah Al-Khalidi, the country’s interior minister has said.
“The persistent search for the Saudi diplomat is continuing, but security agencies have not received any leads so far,” Maj. Gen. Abdulqader Qahtan told Okaz/Saudi Gazette in a telephone interview Friday
Al-Khalidi, Saudi Arabia’s deputy consul in the southern Yemeni city of Aden, was kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in late March demanding the release of women jailed in the Kingdom for links to the terror network.
Asked about the strategy followed by Yemen to evict Al-Qaeda operatives who use the country as a safe haven threatening the region’s security, Qahtan said, “We cooperate with the neighboring countries and the international community to combat Al-Qaeda to realizing our goal of rooting out Al-Qaeda from Yemen.”
About cross-border smuggling of children into the Kingdom, the Yemeni minister admitted that the problem exists due to circumstances prevailing in the country. “We are closely monitoring the borders and there is coordination with the Saudi authorities to counter this problem,” he said. |
