US ambassador says Yemen crisis in 'dangerous' phase

Injured protesters are treated in the yard of a mosque
© AFP Mohammed Huwais

SANAA (AFP) – The US ambassador to Yemen said Saturday unrest in the Arabian Peninsula country had reached a “dangerous” phase and called for dialogue, as three more people died in anti-regime protests.

As police battled protesters with live ammunition and tear gas in another day of bloodshed, Ambassador Gerald M. Feierstein said the strategic US ally needed a “peaceful transition” rather than civil war.

“We consider this to be dangerous. We consider this not to be in the interest of the Yemeni people,” he said of the latest violence.

The way forward was not through anarchy and chaos but “dialogue and negotiation,” he told reporters.

He also reiterated Washington’s concerns that Al-Qaeda militants based in the impoverished country could capitalise on the unrest.

“We oppose simply saying that (President) Ali Abdullah Saleh should go without saying anything about what you think should happen next,” Feierstein said.

“We oppose the idea of chaos, we oppose the idea that this will lead to a civil war or to violence.”

Washington has urged Yemen’s opposition groups, who are demanding Saleh’s resignation this year after three decades in power, to consider his offer to devolve power to parliament and resign when his mandate expires in 2013.

The alternative to dialogue was civil war which would destroy Yemen’s fragile economy and create space for Islamic extremists to operate, Feierstein said.

“Of course we believe that the uncertainty and instability is helpful to Al-Qaeda and some of the extremist groups,” he said.

US special forces troops are in Yemen helping to train anti-terror forces as the country struggles to contain Al-Qaeda’s local offshoot — described by a State Department official recently as the biggest threat to the US homeland.

The impoverished, tribal country is also wracked by a secessionist movement in the south and a Shiite insurgency in the north.

Responding to allegations the government had used poison gas against the protesters, the ambassador said: “We do not have the expertise to make any decisions about what kind of chemical agents were used.”