Will he, this time around? Sunday, 09 October 2011 03:31

Will he or won’t he? Or is it yet another ploy by Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to cling on to power. In an about-face, a day after human rights activist Tawakul Karman was given the Nobel Peace Prize, Saleh said he would step down in coming days. “I reject power and I will reject power in the coming days and I will leave power in the coming days,” Saleh told Parliament. “But there are men who will not let go of power. There are men — who are sincere to God, whether they are civilians or military — who can take hold of the nation. It’s impossible that they will ruin the nation.”

Observers claim Saleh’s words offered nothing new. Yemenis themselves have seen their president survive through thick and thin since he took power in 1978. Senior Saleh officials too echoed the same and said that the president would step down only if a transition plan is approved. That plan was hammered out by the Gulf Cooperation Council. Saleh has repeatedly refused to sign a GCC-brokered power transfer deal under which he would hand over to his deputy vice-president Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution. The opposition has rejected any talks with Saleh before he steps down. Saleh is also be mindful of the possibility of action at the United Nations Security Council, where there is talk of a resolution urging the government to implement the Gulf initiative, possibly sometime next week.

Anti-regime protesters have since January occupied squares in Yemen’s main cities and held regular demonstrations. They have been backed by opposition parties, some of which the Saleh regime accuses of having armed militias. Saleh returned to Yemen on September 23 after three months’ treatment in Saudi Arabia for wounds suffered in an explosion at his presidential compound in the capital. He has opposed domestic and international calls to quit, insisting change should come about through the ballot box. Yemen’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate said Saleh’s latest offer could not be trusted and protests would continue. “We don’t believe this man and if he wants to step down, okay, that belongs to him,” she told Al Jazeera television.

Yemen is an impoverished country of 23 million with problems stretching from declining water resources to Al Qaeda militants taking advantage of chaos in the capital. After nine months of anti-government protests that began during the Arab Spring, Yemen’s government has been torn apart. The armed forces are divided between those loyal to Saleh and those who follow a rebel military commander. With fears that a large-scale civil war may break out and a debilitating economic crisis, Yemenis are standing united and firm in their resolve to oust their president.