Middle East Yemen leader blames protests on US President Saleh accuses US and Israel of destabilising his country and Arab world as fresh protests hit capital Sanaa. Last Modified: 01 Mar 2011 09:41 GMT
The opposition has described Saleh's offer of a unity government as outdated 'tranquilisers' [Reuters] Yemen's president has turned his ire to Israel and the US, accusing them of destabilising his country and the Arab world as protesters demanding his ouster press ahead with demonstrations. Ali Abdullah Saleh's comments on Tuesday marked his harshest public criticism yet of the US, a key ally with which his government is battling al-Qaeda pockets in the Arab Pensinsula. He said "there's an operations room in Tel Aviv [Israeli capital] with the aim of destabilising the Arab world" and that it is "run by the White House". There were was no immediate reaction to Saleh's comments from Washington. An hour after Saleh's speech, tens of thousands of protesters marched to the capital's university, joined for the first time by opposition parties. Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, considered by the US to be linked to the al-Qaeda terror network, was present at the gathering. 'Significant development' Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Sanaa, quoted Saleh as saying: "Mr Obama, you're the president of the United States; you're not the president of the Arab world. "He [Saleh] is asking the international community to stop interfering in the affairs of the Arab world ... It's a very significant development; it shows Saleh is not willing to bow to the demands of the protesters." Protesters pressed ahead with demonstrations depite an offer a day earlier from the president to form a unity government. Saleh has been in power since 1978. Tuesday's protest is the latest in a series that have rocked the country for months and claimed at least 24 lives. The protesters chanted one word: "Leave", in reference to Saleh who until Monday was reluctant to address their demands and said they could not achieve their goal through "anarchy and killing". But on Monday Saleh appeared to back down, saying he would accept members of the opposition in a new government if the protesters stopped their demonstrations. The offer was swiftly rejected by both opposition figures and protesters who described it as outdated "tranquilisers". "The president is saying that 'I cannot keep giving you concessions' because you'll ask for more," said our correspondent. "The opposition is gathering to try to come up with a final statement later in the day. The demands of the opposition are high: They are saying that the only way to defuse tension in Yemen is to see Saleh quit power, but he is saying that the ballot box is the only [thing] decide." One protester said the demonstration was named "Day of Rage for the sake of the martyrs who have been killed in Aden". "The regime gangs and its followers suppressed them, so we will protest here and stand fast until the regime steps down," said Abdul Rahman Kabati. Many protesters are angry at widespread corruption in a country where 40 per cent live on $2 a day or less and where university graduates without connections struggle to get jobs. Youth unemployment is rampant. Yemen is also riven with regional strife, with Shia rebels in the north and separatists in the south demanding fairer political participation. Separatists clash Separatist fighters, meanwhile, clashed with the army on Monday, killing one officer and wounding a second, as unrest sweeps across the country. The fighting happened in the district of Habilayn, where secessionist sentiment runs high. Nasser al-Khabji, a leader in the separatist Southern Movement, told Reuters that more militants were joining the clashes. "More separatist supporters are moving into the area, the situation is tense," he said. In a separate development, tribesmen kidnapped an Uzbek doctor working in the province of Shabwa, an area of central Yemen where both separatists and al-Qaeda fighters are active, late on Monday. Abdulhamid Jun was taken to the neighbouring southern Abyan province, where an air strike against al-Qaeda suspects in December 2009 killed dozens of people in the town of al-Maajala. "They took him to pressure the government to hold the people behind the air strike accountable," a tribesman in Shabwa told the Reuters news agency. "The people are upset with the government for not dealing with this issue." ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
