SANAA: Yemen and France are planning an artificial harbor off Yemen’s Perim island to help the international campaign against piracy in the region, a French diplomat said yesterday.
Speaking after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the diplomat said: “This anchorage will facilitate the missions” of vessels helping in the counter-piracy fight.
France, Yemen and Djibouti are preparing a letter of intent on an “agreement in principle” to create the harbor at Perim, which lies in a strategic location at the entrance to the Red Sea between Yemen and Djibouti, the diplomat added.
Kouchner said he and Saleh explored ways their countries could join forces to battle against high-seas piracy.
“We had very sincere talks,” that centered on increasing visits to Yemeni ports by foreign ships battling piracy and on helping train coast guards, the French foreign minister said.
“We must look at stepping up regional cooperation to avoid security problems,” said Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Kurubi, noting that humble fishermen have been targeted by foreign vessels on counter-piracy operations.
Yemen wants to create an operations coordination center, since “we must help the fishermen to earn their living,” Al-Kurubi said. The country currently operates only a small anti-piracy monitoring center.
Yemen will allow foreign warships to chase suspect vessels into its territorial waters, on a case by case basis and when Yemen is unable to act itself, a French diplomatic source said.
It is “progress compared to a few months ago,” the source added.
Kouchner is expected in Djibouti today for talks with the presidents of Djibouti and Somalia.
More than 130 ships were attacked in the area in 2008 alone.
The heavily armed pirates operate high-powered speedboats and sometimes hold ships for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or ship owners. They are estimated to have raked in $120 million in ransom money last year.
