Nearly 10 months after a terrorist bomb ripped through the USS Cole, the United States has resumed a defense dialogue with Yemen over plans for a joint exercise, among other issues, according to a report by the Middle East Newsline (MENL).
The Nicosia-based news service said that senior US military commanders were meeting Yemeni leaders to discuss the resumption of US military and defense ties with Sanaa.
The discussions are said to have included a review of threats to the Arabian Peninsula and Arabian Gulf region as well as a continuation of US military aid to Yemen.
On Wednesday, the chief of the US Central Command for the region, Gen. Tommy Franks, met Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh was presented with several US proposals for an expansion of defense ties, said the agency.
Franks was in Egypt on Saturday, where he met with Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi and other senior defense officials.
Arab diplomatic sources were quoted as saying that the focus of the discussion in Sanaa was a plan to re-launch a joint exercise between US and Yemeni forces.
The exercise was postponed in the wake of the October bombing of the USS Cole, in which 17 US sailors were killed.
Since then, defense relations have been put on hold as the two countries focused on the investigation into the bombing. The attack has been attributed to Saudi billionaire fugitive Osama Bin Laden.
An FBI investigative team has been in Yemen for the last two weeks to resume the probe, said MENL – Albawaba.com
