President Hadi receives USAID's Director

June 20, 2012

SANA'A- President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi received delegation of the USAID headed by the USAID's Director, Rajiv Shah, who is visiting Yemen to express American's support for the political settlement based on the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism backed by the UN Security Council resolution 2014.

During the meeting, President Hadi reviewed with the American official urgent issues related to the Gulf initiative and what have been achieved on the ground, saying, "What has been achieved to date represents an important achievement by all standards."

The president alluded to the vital and important role of the U.S. in this regard throughout the mutual cooperation between the two countries.

"The comprehensive national dialogue conference will be a quantum leap in changing the system of governance, the Constitution and the electoral system,'' Hadi said.

Hadi noted that the war waged by the army units, especially in the Yemeni province of Abyan has achieved great and unprecedented victories, pointing that the losses in the infrastructures and agriculture were large.

Hadi added that about 500,000 people displaced from Abyan province and there are over 1.2 million African refugees, as well as the big losses in the infrastructures due to the war against al-Qaeda in the province, renewing the call on the international community to help Yemen to face the challenges.

For his part, Director of the USAID stressed the importance of giving Yemen a series of assistance programs and commitments in order to enable it to overcome the challenges in various fields, especially at this juncture.

The American official said that there is an increase in the volume of aid to Yemen worth $ 52 million this year to reach $ 175 million, including various areas of development.