SANA'A, Yemen (NY Times) - As demonstrators for and against President Ali Abdullah Saleh mustered for a new round of competing rallies, the Yemeni leader on Friday said he was ready to yield power but only if he could hand it over to what he termed “safe hands.”
Mr. Saleh was speaking to tens of thousands of supporters at an open-air rally, and while repeating his now frequent offers to relinquish power conditionally, he also made clear that he would remain “steadfast” in challenging what he depicted as violent attempts to oust him.
“I will transfer the power to safe hands, and not to malicious forces who conspire against the homeland,” he said, renewing an offer to open dialogue with young people leading protests against him. The anti-Saleh demonstrators have rejected such offers in the past and have demanded his immediate departure. For his part, Mr. Saleh offered weeks ago to leave office by 2013, but that did not staunch the protests.
Saleh said that his challengers “want to gain power at the expense of martyrs and children.”
Yemeni and American officials said on Thursday that Mr. Saleh was engaged in serious negotiations over the timing and conditions for the end of his 32-year-rule rule, but they cautioned that no deal had been reached. One Yemeni official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the date of Mr. Saleh’s departure appears to be the biggest obstacle. Mr. Saleh’s speech on Friday may have been intended to signal his thinking after a month of protests.
In another television appearance on Thursday, Mr. Saleh struck a defiant pose, referring scornfully to anti-government protesters while offering amnesty to military defectors who return to the government’s side.
“There will be civil war if Saleh leaves early because they (the opposition) don’t want democracy,” pro-Saleh demonstrator Hashis al Asadi said.
Yassin Saeed Noman, the head of the opposition political coalition, has been widely discussed as a possible prime minister in an interim government. He said the terms of Mr. Saleh’s departure were no longer up to the political opposition. “It depends on people in the streets."
Analysis: "President Saleh's bargaining power is slipping as fast as his popular support. With protests continuing to grow and Saleh's traditional power base continually eroding beneath him, the real question now is when, rather than if, Salah will be removed from office. Mr Asadi's warning need be heeded during this process, however. With several organized, motivated, and armed groups spread throughout Yemen, the country is ripe for an extended internal conflict."
Read the Full Article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/middleeast/26yemen.html?ref=world
