Yemen president of 33 years quits amid uprising

ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI

BEN HUBBARD

Asso­ci­ated Press

RIYADH, Saudi Ara­bia — Yemen’s author­i­tar­ian Pres­i­dent Ali Abdul­lah Saleh agreed Wednes­day to step down amid a fierce upris­ing to oust him after 33 years in power. The U.S. and its pow­er­ful Gulf allies pressed for the deal, con­cerned that a secu­rity col­lapse in the impov­er­ished Arab nation was allow­ing an active al-Qaida fran­chise to gain a firmer foothold.

Saleh is the fourth Arab leader top­pled in the wave of Arab Spring upris­ings this year, after long­time dic­ta­tors fell in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The deal gives Saleh immu­nity from pros­e­cu­tion — con­tra­dict­ing a key demand of Yemen’s oppo­si­tion protesters.

Seated beside Saudi King Abdul­lah in the Saudi cap­i­tal Riyadh, Saleh signed the U.S.-backed deal ham­mered out by his country’s pow­er­ful Gulf Arab neigh­bors to trans­fer power within 30 days to his vice pres­i­dent, Abed Rabbo Man­sour Hadi. That will be fol­lowed by early pres­i­den­tial elec­tions within 90 days.

He was dressed smartly in a dark busi­ness suit with a match­ing striped tie and hand­ker­chief, and he smiled as he signed the deal, then clapped his hands a few times. He then spoke for a few min­utes to mem­bers of the Saudi royal fam­i­lies and inter­na­tional diplo­mats, promis­ing his rul­ing party “will be coop­er­a­tive” in work­ing with a new unity government.

“This dis­agree­ment for the last 10 months has had a big impact on Yemen in the realms of cul­ture, devel­op­ment, pol­i­tics, which led to a threat to national unity and destroyed what has been built in past years,” he said.

Pro­test­ers camped out in a pub­lic square near Sanaa’s uni­ver­sity imme­di­ately rejected the deal, chant­ing, “No immu­nity for the killer.” They vowed to con­tin­ued their protests.

Pres­i­dent Barack Obama wel­comed Saleh’s deci­sion, say­ing it is an impor­tant step for­ward for the Yemeni peo­ple. He urged all involved to move imme­di­ately to imple­ment the agree­ment. Obama said the U.S. would stand by the Yemeni peo­ple “as they embark on this his­toric tran­si­tion” to real­ize their aspi­ra­tions for a new begin­ning, and he acknowl­edged “impor­tant work” done by Gulf allies.

Saleh has clung to power despite the daily mass protests call­ing for his ouster and a June assas­si­na­tion attempt that left him badly wounded and forced him to travel to Saudi Ara­bia for more than three months of hos­pi­tal treat­ment. He was burned over much of his body and had shards of wood embed­ded in his chest by the explo­sion that ripped through his palace mosque as he prayed.

Shortly before Saleh inked the agree­ment, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the pres­i­dent told him he will travel to New York for med­ical treat­ment after sign­ing it. He didn’t say when Saleh planned to arrive in New York, nor what treat­ment he would be seeking.

Since Feb­ru­ary, tens of thou­sands of Yeme­nis have protested in cities and towns across the nation, call­ing for democ­racy and the fall of Saleh’s regime. The upris­ing has led to a secu­rity col­lapse, with armed tribes­men bat­tling secu­rity forces in dif­fer­ent regions and al-Qaida-linked mil­i­tants step­ping up oper­a­tions in the country’s restive south.

For months, the U.S. and other world pow­ers pres­sured Saleh to agree to the power trans­fer pro­posal by the Gulf Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil, and he agreed then backed down sev­eral times before. All the while, the upris­ing raged, secu­rity and the econ­omy dete­ri­o­rated. Al-Qaida in the Ara­bian Penin­sula grew more bold, even seiz­ing some territory.

Even before the upris­ing began, Yemen was the poor­est coun­try in the Mid­dle East, frac­tured and unsta­ble with a gov­ern­ment that had weak author­ity at best out­side the cap­i­tal Sanaa.

Secu­rity is par­tic­u­larly bad in south­ern Yemen, where al-Qaida mil­i­tants — from one of the world’s most active branches of the ter­ror net­work — have taken con­trol of entire towns, using the tur­moil to strengthen their position.

The nation of some 25 mil­lion peo­ple is of strate­gic value to the United States and its Gulf Arab allies, par­tic­u­larly Saudi Ara­bia. It sits close to the major Gulf oil fields and over­looks key ship­ping lanes in the Red and Ara­bian seas.

Saleh addressed the country’s trou­bles with­out men­tion­ing the demands of pro­test­ers who have filled squares across Yemen call­ing for his ouster, often fac­ing deadly crack­downs from his secu­rity forces.

He also struck out at those who strove to top­ple him, call­ing the protests the protests a “coup” and the bomb­ing of his palace mosque that seri­ously wounded him in June “a scandal.”

Saleh said his rul­ing party will be “among the prin­ci­pal par­tic­i­pants” in the pro­posed national unity gov­ern­ment that is to be formed between his party and oppo­si­tion par­ties, who also signed the deal.

Protests lead­ers have rejected the Gulf pro­posal from the begin­ning, say­ing it ignores their prin­ci­ple demands, which include insti­tut­ing demo­c­ra­tic reforms and putting Saleh on trial. They say the oppo­si­tion polit­i­cal par­ties that signed the deal are com­pro­mised by their long asso­ci­a­tion with Saleh’s government.

Sanaa protest orga­nizer Walid al-Ammari said the deal “does not serve the inter­ests of Yemen.”

“We will con­tinue to protest in the streets and pub­lic squares until we achieve all the goals that we set to achieve,” he said.

The plan Saleh agreed to calls for a two-year tran­si­tion period in which a national unity gov­ern­ment will amend the con­sti­tu­tion, work to restore secu­rity and hold a national dia­logue on the country’s future.

The unarmed pro­test­ers have held their ground with remark­able resilience, flock­ing to the streets of Sanaa and other Yemeni cities and towns to demand reforms and brav­ing a vio­lent crack­down by gov­ern­ment forces that has killed hundreds.

Their upris­ing has at times been hijacked by Yemen’s two tra­di­tional pow­ers — the tribes and the mil­i­tary — fur­ther deep­en­ing the country’s tur­moil. Break­away mil­i­tary units and tribal fight­ers have been bat­tling in Sanaa with troops loyal to Saleh in fight­ing that has esca­lated in recent months.

Posted by AP News on Nov 23 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.