The High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, has confirmed that Yemen faces many challenges and needs support of the entire international community. \"Certainly, the safe environment will help the international community to lend a helping hand to Yemen in its career to build a better and prosperous future\", Ashton said in a statement issued on Monday in Brussels and cited by her spokesman. In her statement, Ashton expressed her satisfaction with the release of three European citizens (an Austrian and two Finns), who have been held as hostages by terrorist elements in Yemen since 21 December 2012. She voiced her gratitude to President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi and the Reconciliation Government and the Omani authorities for their efforts, in collaboration with the EU especially Finnish and Austrian authorities, in ending the suffering of the hostages, which lasted for more than four months.