Kuwait City (dpa) – Yemen's interim Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basindwa said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had pledged aid to his violence-racked country. “The brothers in Saudi Arabia confirmed to me that they would not leave Yemen without support,” Basindwa told reporters Wednesday in Kuwait, the second leg of a current Gulf tour. Basindwa added that Kuwaiti officials had made similar promises. “It is high time for Yemen to start the development journey after years of many tribulations,” he said. Basindwa had held talks with senior officials in the two oil-rich countries, mainly focusing on economic support for Yemen. During the tour, he is set to visit all six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that have brokered a power transfer deal in Yemen aimed at ending 10 months of the unrest in the impoverished Arabian peninsula country. Under the deal, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to step down after ruling the country for more than 33 years in return for immunity from prosecution. Basindwa's transitional government was formed in early December with equal weight given to Saleh's party and the opposition. Early presidential elections are to be held in Yemen on February 21 as part of the deal. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/VQMDx Tags: Aid, Assistance Section: Kuwait, Latest News, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
