Because, as the AP writeup takes zero time in pointing out, that's worked out so well in the recent past:

Yemen's president said he is ready to open a dialogue with al-Qaida fighters who lay down their weapons and renounce violence, despite U.S. pressure to crack down on the terror group. The United States has complained in the past that Yemen struck deals with al-Qaida fighters and freed them from prison after they promised not to engage in terrorism. Some later broke those promises and are now believed to be active in al-Qaida's offshoot in Yemen.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed that his government is "determined to stand up to the challenges" of al-Qaida and that his security forces will track down as many al-Qaida fighters as possible among those who refuse to stop violence. But he left the door open for negotiations. "Dialogue is the best way ... even with al-Qaida, if they set aside their weapons and return to reason," he said in an interview with Abu Dhabi TV aired late Saturday. "We are ready to reach (an) understanding with anyone who renounces violence and terrorism."

Simply as a technical matter, dialogue with an enemy who's committed to your annihilation is actually not the "best way." There's simply not that much to talk about. In fact, to the extent that the balance of power in Yemen is shifting towards AQ and away from the central government, wasting time in the hope of dialogue is likely to be a disaster.

Meanwhile AQ has established residence in Yemen because it sets them up for attacks on Saudi Arabia, a target that Iranian-funded Shiite jihadists have also been attacking with regularity and visible success. Saudi Arabia has responded with everything up to and including a formal naval blockade on northern Yemeni cities that - on top of everything else - further weakened the government.

Oh: and the entire civilian population is literally physically crippled by a massive drug epidemic. So even when they want to do something they can't get people into work. It's that bad. Of course it's been that bad for a while, and until recently the Obama administration was going to send a bunch of Gitmo jihadists into the country. Smart power.

As for renouncing violence and terrorism - and I hate to be the bearer of bad news - they don't really mean it. The 170 jihadists released in February certainly didn't mean it. That's why they did things like "break their promises" and returned to AQ's ranks.

References and related after the jump...