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Saudi Arabia pledges 3.25 billion U.S. dollars aid to Yemen

24 May 2012 00:54 (UTC +04:00)

SANAA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Oil-rich Saudi Arabia granted an aid of 3.25 billion U.S. dollars for its unrest-ridden neighbor Yemen in a donor meeting in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Wednesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua

"The kingdom of Saudi Arabia pledges 3.25 billion U.S. dollars to aid Yemen in its development process," SABA quoted Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal as saying in the meeting dubbed "the Friends of Yemen".

The meeting, the third of its kind in three years, aims to help maintain the stability of Yemen and support its government to fight the resurgent al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Yemen, in the southern corner of the Arabian Peninsula, had witnessed one-year popular protests that forced the long-time leader Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power.

Under a Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council deal that backed by the United Nations, Saleh’s deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was elected in February as the new president for a two-year transitional term.

In the meeting in Riyadh, which was attended by representatives of 42 donor countries, another 1-billion-dollar aid was expected to be announced to help Yemen overcome political, security and economic challenges.

The donors back Yemen’s political transition as insurgency flares up in the country’s southern regions, where the al-Qaida wing took advantage of the one-year unrest to control several cities.

Backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Hadi has launched an all-out war against the militants, killing hundreds of militants including several prominent leaders of the terrorist group. He has vowed to strengthen security and intelligence cooperation with the United States in combating the AQAP, which has threatened the daily oil shipping routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The donor meeting came two days after an al-Qaida suicide bomber killed at least 90 soldiers and injured more than 200 others during a rehearsal for a military parade in the capital