Yemen's President Saleh to seek European pressure on Israel

Jan 28, 2008, 13:55 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Monday he would ask the European Union to put pressure on Israel to end the lockdown of the Gaza Strip.

'We look forward to seeing an effective European role to put pressure on Israel to halt its aggression and end the unfair blockade on the Palestinian people,' Saleh told the official Saba news agency as he left on a trip to Madrid and Brussels.

The Yemeni leader said Israel must 'abide by the resolutions of the international legitimacy (United Nations) to achieve a just peace in the region.'

He is scheduled to spend three days in Spain, and then leave for Brussels on a two-day official visit to the institutions of the European Union.

This is Saleh's first official visit to Spain since he took over his country's presidency in 1978.

The visit, at the invitation of Spain's King Juan Carlos, comes nearly six months after eight Spanish tourists were killed in a car bomb attack on their convoy in central Yemen.

Yemeni officials have blamed the July 2 attack on the terrorist al-Qaeda group.

Yemen and Spain established full diplomatic relations in April 2006.

In Brussels, Saleh plans to hold talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Parliamentary Speaker Hans- Gert Poettering and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, according to Yemeni officials.