Sana’a: The planned release of a Saudi Arabian diplomat kidnapped in Yemen fell through on Sunday when al Qaeda-linked militants refused at the last minute to hand him over to mediators, Reuters reported on Sunday.
Abdallah al-Khalidi, the deputy consul in the Saudi consulate in the Yemeni port city of Aden, was kidnapped in May by militants demanding a ransom and the release of women prisoners held in the kingdom.
Tribal chief Tareq al-Fadli told Reuters on Sunday that Khalidi had been released late on Saturday after a mediation by local tribal leaders, but later in the day, a tribal source denied the report and said that the kidnappers had delayed Khalidi’s release saying they needed to hold more talks among themselves.
“The tribal negotiators were surprised at the last minute when they were told by the kidnappers that the handover of the Saudi diplomat was postponed to a later time,” the source said, without giving further details.
In two of the Khalidi’s videos, he urged King Abdullah to release women detainees from Saudi jails if he wanted safe release of the diplomat. A militant who claimed responsibility for the abduction had threatened to kill Khalidi unless a ransom was paid and al Qaeda prisoners were freed from Saudi jails.
Last month, five al Qaeda-linked women detainees were freed by Saudi authorities. Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turkis stressed at the time that the move was not linked to the demands of Khalidi’s captors.
Yemen has been in turmoil since popular protests broke out last year and led to the ousting of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The United States and its Gulf Arab allies have watched with mounting alarm as Islamist fighters, emboldened by political instability in Yemen, went on a rampage in the south of the country.
Hundreds of militants have been on the run since U.S.-backed Yemeni forces drove them out of towns and cities they had seized last year.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is seen by U.S. officials as the most dangerous offshoot of the global militant network.
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