• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

01/11/2010

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle landed in the Yemeni capital San'a on Monday morning on a surprise visit. He is the first Western foreign minister to visit Yemen since the failed Christmas Day attack on an American airliner made the impoverished Arab country the focus of world attention.

Westerwelle, the leader of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), the junior partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in Germany's governing coalition, was on a trip to the region and had already visited Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states over the weekend. He was met at the airport by his Yemeni counterpart Abu Bakr al-Qirbi and later held talks with top officials, including President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Although the Yemen trip was not made public due to security concerns, the German Foreign Ministry had informed Germany's allies and partners of Westerwelle's intentions.

According to a member of his delegation, the foreign minister wanted to go to Yemen to get "the feeling on the ground." Westerwelle had already told his hosts in Saudi Arabia that Germany had a great interest in a stable Yemen, so that it would not become a haven for terrorists.

US President Barack Obama has already accused the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of arming and training the young Nigerian who is accused of trying to blow up a plane on Christmas Day.

Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh is now coming under increased pressure from his Western partners to crack down on AQAP, as well as to resolve the ongoing unrest in the north and south of the country. Recent clashes with the Houthi rebels in the north have already led to military intervention by neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Guido Steinberg, a terrorism expert with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), a Berlin-based think tank, told the ARD TV channel that Yemen could end up a failed state like Somalia. "Up to now, the problems in Yemen have been local and have not escalated greatly," he said. "That would, however, change the moment neigboring countries really get the impression that this state is falling apart. Then several powers would try to protect their interests there."

Germany is by far the biggest European contributor of development aid to Yemen, with some €79 million ($114 million) earmarked for the impoverished country for 2010-2011. Before the meeting an official with the German delegation told the Agence France Presse news agency that Westerwelle would press Saleh on good governance. The official said he would raise the issue of widespread corruption while also calling for a national dialogue to resolve internal strife as a means to restoring stability.

After the talks, a member of the delegtion told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the talks between Saleh and Westerwelle had been "pretty direct." At the press conference which followed the meeting, Westerwelle made it clear what Berlin expected of the Yemeni president. "We believe that a military solution cannot be successful," he said, adding that only a political solution could remove the fertile breeding ground for terrorism.

While oil revenues are dropping, the population has exploded in Yemen and many Western countries blame the Yemeni government's failure to tackle growing poverty for the rise in extremism. However, Germany is reluctant to openly exert too much pressure on Saleh, for fear of making him look like a Western puppet.

'A Barbaric Act'

During his meeting with Saleh on Monday the two men also discussed five German hostages who are missing in Yemen. After the meeting, Westerwelle told reporters that Saleh said he had received information two hours previously about where the German hostages were being held.

The couple and their three children were kidnapped along with a British woman in June 2009. Two other Germans and a South Korean national who were snatched at the same time were later found dead. The Yemeni government told Berlin last week that the five German citizens are still alive.

On Sunday evening, Westerwelle said that the German government would do everything it could to reunite the hostages with their loved ones, adding that the kidnapping was "a barbaric act that we condemn."

German diplomats, however, were skeptical about the veracity of the good news about the hostages' whereabouts, with sources saying the statement seemed like an attempt to create a good mood at the talks.

With reporting by Ralf Neukirch in San'a