Washington, January 03: The United States and Britain have agreed to fund a counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen as part of stepped-up efforts to fight terrorism, Britain said on Sunday.
The failed Christmas Day attack in which a 23-year-old Nigerian is accused of trying to blow up a U.S. passenger jet as it approached Detroit has focused attention on both sides of the Atlantic on the growing threat from al Qaeda in Yemen.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office said Britain and the United States had agreed to intensify their joint work to tackle “the emerging terrorist threat” from both Yemen and Somalia in the wake of the failed Detroit attack.
“Amongst the initiatives the prime minister has agreed with President (Barack) Obama is U.S.-UK funding for a special counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen,” it said in a statement.
Britain and the United States would also support the Yemeni coastguard, it said.
A spokeswoman for Brown said funding for the measures would be met through existing commitments to Yemen.
The initiatives were the result of ongoing work between Britain and the United States and had been under discussion since before the Detroit attack, she said.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who has been charged with the plane attack, has told U.S. investigators he was trained by al Qaeda in Yemen.
Obama said on Friday he had made it a priority to strengthen the U.S. partnership with the Yemeni government, “training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al Qaeda terrorists.”
YEMEN MEETING
Brown has ordered a review of British airport security and has invited key international partners to a London meeting on Jan. 28 to discuss how to combat radicalisation in Yemen.
Yemen’s Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi has said there could be up to 300 al Qaeda militants in his country, some of whom may be planning attacks on Western targets.
On Somalia, Brown’s office said he and Obama “believe that a larger peacekeeping force is required and will support this at the U.N. Security Council.”
A senior U.S. administration official said, however, he was unaware of plans for a push for a larger U.N. peacekeeping force for Somalia.
The Somali government and African Union (AU) have pleaded with the United Nations to send a robust peacekeeping force that could take over from the 5,200 AU troops from Uganda and Burundi who have said they are incapable of stabilising Somalia.
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s Western-backed government is battling Islamist insurgents in Somalia including the hardline al Shabaab group, which Washington accuses of being al Qaeda’s proxy.
Brown wants European Union foreign ministers to discuss Yemen and Somalia at their next meeting in late January and he will also discuss the situation in both countries with other EU leaders at the next European summit, his office said.
He intends to push for stronger action on Yemen from the Financial Action Task Force, an international body that combats money laundering and financing of terrorism, it said.
Brown has also called a special meeting of a British cabinet committee on national security to discuss Britain’s response to the attempted Detroit attack, the statement said.
British aid to Yemen, previously 20 million pounds ($31.80 million) a year, is set to rise to 50 million pounds a year from 2010, according to the British Foreign Office web site.
—Agencies