美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-08-07（在线收听） |
This is seen as a broad-brush approach being taken by the US here in, I should say, in a country where security is already arid tight under normal operations there. In terms of broadcasting we are not allowed to go - take our cameras into the diplomatic area. Let’s give you a sence where the US embassy is. If you look over my shoulder here, that tall, sloping building to the right of your screen is the US embassy. And it’s fair to say it does stand out in a crowd. Now, this is seen, as I was suggested here, as a big, wide action by the US, perhaps not targeted at the UAE but clearly at the advances made by Al Qaeda at Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen recently, and more specifically in Iraq, and just by mere geographic here, but they are a proximity to Iraq and Iran. This is seen as a precautionary measure.
I tried to speak to the US Ambassador who had said that this decision is coming out of Washington. One European ambassador said to me that this is a direct response, Natalie, to the attack in Benghazi last year where, ah, someone suggested that the US was slow to react. They don’t want to be thrown out of the ground here, and they are not taking any chances by just closing embassies in three or four countries.
They are going after 22 countries and consulates throughout the region, even stretching to Afghanistan and Bangladesh. And we know now that Britain, Germany, and France have shuttered their operations in Yemen and the US had put tanks in front of their operations in that country as well, Natalie.
Certainly something has had been taken as very, very seriously. Thanks for showing us the building there behind you. That is the US embassy. What do you know about the security at that building on a regular day there in Abu Dhabi, John?
Well, it is a very tightly run operation not only of the US embassy but it is declared to say that the UAE had some of the best security in the Gulf states and in the broader Middle East. They take it very seriously.
It’s only 300 km from here to Iran in going across the Straits of Hormuz. So that you could imagine what security is all about. The US and Britain have security cooperation here with the UAE government as well. But this comes at a period, interesting enough, during the last week of Ramadan, where it’s unusually quiet as it is.
Emaratsi and other Muslems are in the region. They are waking up late in the day because of their, a breaking of the fast early the morning before. So, in fact, it’s a very quiet period anyway. And I think it’s fair to say it’s eerily quiet around the US embassy, as we see, what the security kind of locked down there during this hour.
And we don’t really know when it would be back and anything would be returned to normal, do we?
Well, the suggestion is - and I haven’t spoken to the US ambassador today - we know that the closure is for 24 hours on the embassy, but the travel alert carrys out through the month of August.
Now I think it can be a wait-and-see attitude here to find what the noise is. The intellegences are coming out, this is not noise limited to Yemen - when I understand from diplomatic officials - but a broader approach here, Iraq, Yemen, and some of the concerned that even spilled into Syria.
Again, they are not taking any chances. They are going to see the broad-bruch(你好好讲话行吗？), broad-brush approach through the 22 different countries and territories here in the region that even stretched into South Asia with Afghanistan and Bangladesh. |
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