Country Profile: Yemen

— -- The region at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula has been a fabled destination and a meeting ground for travelers and traders since ancient times.

With its ports located at the crossroads of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, traders on the ancient spice route have known the region of present-day Yemen by different names.

The Romans called the regional powerhouse Arabia Felix while fascinated children since times immemorial have known it simply as the land that was once ruled by the Queen of Sheba.

But the present Republic of Yemen only came into being in 1990 when traditionalist North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen merged after years of regional clashes.

Although the two countries merged, peace between the North and South broke down in 1994 resulting in a bitter civil war that ended with the defeat of the separatist Southerners and the establishment of a unified Yemen.

Dual Worldviews

Yemen today may be one nation, but a duality of worldviews — one, modernist and another, traditional and tribal — continues to coexist, sometimes uneasily.

In many parts of the country, ancient tribal customs continue to survive making Yemen a tourist attraction for adventurous and curious tourists.

But the relatively impoverished Arab nation shot into international focus on Oct. 12, 2000, when a small boat laden with explosives blew up alongside the USS Cole as it refueled in the port of Aden, tearing a hole in its side and killing 17 U.S. sailors.

Following the attack on the Cole, the U.S. State Department has continued to warn Americans to defer visits to Yemen. The warning has been in place not just due to the attack on the Cole.

Despite the Yemeni government's crackdown on hard-line Islamic terrorists and the expulsion of foreign Muslims, including Americans, who have been associated with local Muslim organizations considered extremist by Yemeni security forces, tribal kidnappings of foreigners continue to be a threat especially in the barren, wild regions of the North.