Yemeni cleric cautious about new relationship with US.
It doesn’t seem to me like it’s an off-the-wall reservation to have given everything else going on in the world, but Zindani has a bad reputation so it’s easy to change the subject to Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda…
Yemen’s most influential Islamic cleric, considered an al-Qaida-linked terrorist by the United States, warned Monday that the U.S.-backed fight against the terror group could lead to “foreign occupation” of the country.
Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani’s comments illustrate the pressure Yemen’s government is under to limit the U.S. role here even as Washington ramps up counterterrorism aid and training to help combat al-Qaida’s offshoot in the country.
Al-Zindani is emblematic of how — unlike in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose governments are bitter enemies of al-Qaida — Yemen’s beleaguered regime has built alliances with Islamic extremists to hold onto power. Some have al-Qaida connections, complicating the fight.