[27/04/2018 01:12]

PARIS-SABA
Foreign Minister Abdul-Malik al-Mekhlafi and the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the US Department of State Nathan A. Sales have discussed the US-Yemeni cooperation in combating terrorism and extremism.

The two officials met on the sideline of their participation in a two-day conference on combating the funding of terror groups held in Paris on Thursday.

Al-Mekhlafi renewed the Yemeni government's commitment to dry out the sources of terrorism. He underscore the importance of bolstering the bilateral partnership in this field through reviving joint security systems such as the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES) which was in place to ensure screen immigrants into and out of Yemen before the 2014 coup d'état.

He stressed emphasis on strengthening cooperation to control the networks of smuggling from the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean coasts, where the interests of the drugs, human and other contraband traffic networks overlapped with those of al-Qaeda, Houthis and agents of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

He said that the alliance between these smugglers is a threat to the stability of Yemen and the whole region. He said that Iran is now extorting the countries of the region by threatening to strike international shipping lanes.

He said that another more dangerous form of terrorism is the use of the Houthi-held territories in north Yemen as a launch pad for firing ballistic missiles into Yemeni cities and Saudi civilian objects and installations.

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