SANAA, 2 September 2004 — The United States has lifted a ten-year embargo on arms sales to Yemen to reward efforts by Arab states in fighting terrorism, Yemen’s state-run SABA news agency said yesterday.
The agency reported that the US Assistant Secretary of State for Political and Military Affairs Lincoln Bloomfield informed President Ali Abdullah Saleh about the move during talks in Sanaa yesterday.
Bloomfield praised efforts by Yemen in the fight against terrorism, and announced his country’s decision to end the embargo on exports of (military) equipment and arms to Yemen, SABA added.
In his remarks during the meeting, the US official insisted on the interest of the United States in consolidating relations and cooperation with Yemen for the sake of common interests of both countries, according to the agency.
The ban on weapons sales to Yemen was introduced in 1994 during the ten-week civil war that broke out after a failed secession attempt in the southern part of the Arab country.
Yemen has allied itself with the US-led war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on US cities. It cracked down on militants and rounded up hundreds of suspected members of the Al-Qaeda terror network.
Three Injured in Blast
In western Yemen, a building was leveled and three people were injured when dynamite stored in the two-story structure exploded on Tuesday, police said.
Rescuers were searching for two people believed to be buried under the rubble of the building in Al-Mahweet city, about 110 kilometers northwest of Sanaa, police said.
They added that the injured were residents of the building.
The dynamite was stored in a warehouse in the ground floor of the building, they said, adding that a neighboring house was also damaged by the explosion.
Explosives experts opened an investigation to determine what ignited the blast, but police said it appeared to be accidental.
Contractors in Yemen’s rural areas often use dynamite to build roads through mountainous terrain, but its storage had led to similar explosions in the past.
Eighteen people were killed on July 22 when a three-story apartment building collapsed in the northern province of Amran after an explosives store detonated.
