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Tokyo, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged today that al-Qaeda was seizing terrain amid the chaos in Yemen, but vowed that Washington would continue to combat the extremist group despite ongoing fighting there.
“We see them making gains on the ground there as they try to take territory,” said Carter, who was in Japan as part of a visit to Asia for talks with regional allies.
Yemen has descended into violence over recent months, with Huthi rebels seizing power in the capital Sana’a in February.
The Huthis, allied with army units loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been fighting forces supporting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who has fled to the Saudi capital Riyadh.
Late last month Saudi Arabia launched a campaign of air strikes, amid fears Yemen will slip into Huthi control and shift into the orbit of Shiite Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.
Observers say al-Qaeda and other groups are exploiting the instability, in which the World Health Organisation says at least 540 people have died since March 19.
“The terrorism threat to the West, including the US, from AQAP (Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) is a longstanding and serious one (…) that we will keep combating,” he added at a press conference alongside his Japanese counterpart, Gen Nakatani.
“Obviously it’s always easier to conduct CT [counter-terrorism] ops when there is a stable government willing to cooperate.
“That circumstance now obviously doesn’t exist in Yemen but that doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to take steps to protect ourselves. We have to do it in a different way, but we do and we are.”
Carter expressed hope that peace would be restored “not only for that reason but also (because) there is a lot of suffering in Yemen”.
At the end of last week AQAP, which the US views as the most dangerous wing of the Sunni Muslim extremist group, captured the army headquarters and the southeastern port of Al Mukalla.
Carter seeks deeper ties in first Asia visit
Carter said the first revision of the US-Japan Defence Guidelines in 17 years will “transform” the bilateral alliance.
The guidelines, expected to be formally approved in about three weeks, “will help us respond flexibly to the full scope to the challenges we face, both in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe,” he said at a news conference after meeting his Japanese counterpart in Tokyo.
Carter, who travels to South Korea later this week, is on his first trip to Asia since becoming Defence Secretary in February.
Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said that he and Carter also agreed that relocating a US Marines base in Okinawa to another part of the island is the “only solution” to closing the existing base, which lies in a heavily populated area.
Many in Okinawa, and their current Governor, oppose the construction of the replacement base in a less populated area, arguing that the facility should be moved off Okinawa entirely.
The defence guidelines are expected to lay out the framework for Japan to play a bigger role in regional security, as the government loosens constitutional restrictions on the use of its military.
