Yemen protests German ban on Yemeni flights

Sana’a,YEMEN/BERLIN - Yemen expressed “regret and surprise” Monday after Germany banned all flights from Yemen, describing the move as a “collective and illogical punishment” to the parcel bombs plot.

A ban by Germany on incoming parcels and other air cargo from Yemen was widened Monday into an exclusion from German airspace of all planes that began their flights in Yemen.

The Transport Ministry in Berlin said German air traffic control was instructed to turn away all planes coming directly or indirectly from Yemen.

The order followed the discovery of unexploded parcel bombs despatched from Yemen and bound for the US.

A Yemeni official source expressed “regret and surprise at the decision of the Federal Republic of Germany, which has a relationship of friendship and advanced cooperation with Yemen, to prevent all flights from Yemen to Germany”.

The ban was a “hasty and exaggerated reaction” to the plot, and “harms Yemen’s efforts in the fight against terrorism”, the source said in a statement.

Germany’s federal aviation office advised all Yemeni airlines that their planes were prohibited from landing in Germany.

Berlin has also ordered the German-owned parcels service DHL and US-owned UPS and FedEx to investigate every Yemen-origin parcel in their German depots.

Such a ban “can only be explained as a collective and illogical punishment against Yemen and its people, which has rejected terrorism and supported tireless efforts of its government in its open war on terrorism”, he said.

He added that move “only serves the terrorists of Al Qaeda who have always sought to achieve such results to damage the interests of Yemen and its reputation and his relationship with its friends and regional and international partners”.

The source said Yemen “will remain committed to its cooperation with the international community to combat terrorism and drain its resources”.