Hopes to see a quick resolution to Yemen's terror detainees' repatriation dossier were shattered this Thursday when a meeting between US President Barack Obama and Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi failed to address the technicalities of the prisoners' return only to concentrate on the idea of a potential return.
Following an last week that the US was preparing the return of two terror detainees back to Algeria activists in Yemen hoped such goodwill would translate to its own nationals and see their prompt return. President Hadi's to the US only comforted people in the belief that a clear plan would be soon ironed out and implemented for Yemen's 56-cleared-for-transfer terror prisoners.
While US President Obama announced in May he had revoked a memorandum preventing Yemeni Gitmo's prisoners from being repatriated and freed despite a court clearance, Yemen's 56 have remained in limbo, waiting for their government to master enough political will to lobby their release.
Making no direct mention to Guantanamo Bay penitentiary, America's most infamous terror incarceration center, US President Obama only remarked on Yemen's progress against al-Qaeda, quietly enforcing the idea that by fighting off and pursuing terror elements within the impoverished nation, the US was indeed helping the nation achieve its goal of stability and economic recovery.
"As a result of the activities of al Qaeda, Yemen's development basically came to a halt whereby there is no tourism, and the oil companies, the oil-exploring companies had to leave the country as a result of the presence of al Qaeda," he said through a translator. So our cooperation against those terrorist elements are actually serving the interests of Yemen."
The US president went on saying, "Because of some of the effective military reforms that President Hadi initiated when he came into this office, what we've seen is al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, move back out of territories that it was controlling."
It is important to note that these remarks came amid reports that the US has resumed its drone attacks in Yemen following a short respite.