Sanaa, August 17: A delegation of U.S. senators led by John McCain is in Yemen for talks on helping the impoverished Arab Peninsula country battle the threat from al-Qaida.
McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan has confirmed that the senators will be meeting Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Monday.
She says the talks will include counterterrorism cooperation and Guantanamo detainees.
Yemen has been a professed U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism but President Barack Obama is hesitating to send home the nearly 100 Yemeni inmates held at Guantanamo Bay prison because of Yemen’s history of either releasing extremists or allowing them to escape from prison.
The congressional delegation is on a Mideast trip that has made stops in Libya and Iraq.
—-Agencies