U.S. Navy Can Use Port of Aden Again

SANA, Yemen — The United States and Yemen have reached a deal to allow U.S. warships to resume refueling in the Yemeni port where the destroyer Cole was attacked nearly 18 months ago, officials from both countries said Monday.

Under the accord, officials said, U.S. Marines will participate in security at the port of Aden, where 17 American sailors were killed and 37 hurt when a small boat, laden with explosives, was detonated beside the Cole in October 2000.

However, both Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers said Monday that they did not know of any plans to resume using Aden as a refueling stop, and it was not clear when refueling would resume.

“There are no current plans that I know of with respect to Aden,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference.

The port is strategically located near the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and important shipping lanes. Anthony C. Zinni, the special U.S. Mideast envoy, said after the attack that Aden remained the region’s least dangerous refueling point.

The U.S. suspects Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network was behind the Cole attack. Yemen has been unable to arrest key Al Qaeda suspects and acknowledges that there may be other Al Qaeda activists in the country.

For Yemen, the return of U.S. warships to its main port is seen as a vote of confidence in the country’s leadership and an opportunity to make money.

“Their return will yield us huge returns of foreign currency because we will supply the ships with fuel, water, food supplies and will charge them for those services as well as docking facilities,” a Yemeni official said on condition of anonymity.

Yemen has committed itself to the U.S. war on terrorism.