President heads for London meeting

SANA’A, Nov 14 (Saba)-President Ali Abdullah Saleh left Sana’a on Tuesday to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in a round including United Kingdom and France. President Saleh will hold discussions with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz dealing with enhancing the bilateral relations and mutual cooperationbetween the two countries. The discussion will also focus on current arrangements for the ConsultativeG roup Meeting for Yemen’s Development Partners which is to be held inLondon on Wednesday. It also deals with the role played by Saudi Arabia to bring the meetingin to success and insure positive results to serve the development in Yemenand qualify the Yemeni economy to joint economies of Gulf Cooperation Council. President Saleh will head Yemeni side in the London meeting. Then, he will pay an official visit to France to discuss with the French President Jacques Chirac the partnership between the two countries. The two leaders will discuss the latest regional and international developments in Middle East. President Saleh expressed optimism of the Yemeni people that the London meeting, visits to KSA and France will come out with positive outcomesto serve goals of the development in Yemen. It is important meeting to Yemen and confirms our adherence to collect the international assistance for the plans which aims at improving thedevelopment process in the country, he said. He expected optimistic results from the meeting, especially after September’s presidential and local elections, which reflected real desire of Yemen toward democracy. We are confident that this meeting would establish a strong foundation to enhance the partnership between Yemen and its brothers in the GCC andthe donors, president Saleh said. “We hope that the meeting will realize our dreams in supporting the development plans.” Regarding his visit to Saudi Arabia, president Saleh said that the visit came within the framework of the continuing communication between thetwo leaders. “I’m holding a discussion with my brother, king Abdullah over issues associated with the brotherly relations and means of enhancing mutual cooperation between the two countries.” He appreciated desire of the Saudi king to support the relations and joint cooperation between the two countries. About his visit to France, president Saleh said my visit to France reflects deep relations between Yemen and France. We will talk with the French leader over the latest developments in the international and regional areas, especially current situations in Iraq,Palestine, Somalia, and African Horn. TD/AH SABA