Yemen leader set to return amid mounting calls to quit
Yemen: Protesters demanded a swift transfer of power from Ali
Abdullah Saleh as his deputy said the veteran Yemeni president would
return within days after surgery in Riyadh for blast injuries.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Monday urged Saleh to act
"in the best interest of his people" while the White House called for an
"immediate transition."
"His excellency is making a strong recovery and will return home in
the coming days," Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi said at a meeting
of the ruling General People's Congress, quoted by the official Saba
news agency.
In Sanaa, a fragile truce held despite a deadly sniper attack on
loyalists of a powerful tribal chief blamed for Friday's bomb attack
which wounded Saleh as he prayed inside a mosque in his compound.
As Saleh, 69, recuperated in a Riyadh military hospital, a committee
of youth activists that has been a key player behind the four-month
uprising against his nearly 33 years of iron-fisted rule called for a
quick transfer of power.
The committee urged "all national and political forces to begin by
forming an interim presidential council."
It also called for a "government of technocrats" to lead the
transition.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yemen's capital on
Sunday to cheer what they saw as the end of Saleh's regime.
Impoverished Yemen's wealthy Gulf neighbours, who have been trying to
broker a peaceful transition for months, said their proposal for Saleh
to hand over power in return for the promise of immunity from
prosecution remained the "most suitable solution."
"The council member-states could activate (the proposal) and follow
up on its implementation, if Yemen parties agree on it," said Gulf
Cooperation Council chief Abdullatif al-Zayani, whose mediation efforts
since April have repeatedly run into objections from Saleh.
The EU foreign policy chief recalled that the Yemeni president had
almost signed the Gulf proposals on three occasions, and said: "He knows
perfectly well what he needs to do for his people."
"I trust he will do that," Ashton added.
Washington also reiterated its support for the Gulf plan. "An
immediate transition is in the best interests of the people," White
House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.
Britain on Monday confirmed the deployment of "military assets" near
Yemen but did not verify reports that ships were on standby in the Gulf
to evacuate its nationals.
"As part of routine deployment UK military assets are in the region,
although we are not prepared to comment further on their exact
operational tasking," a Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman said.
Around 80 marines were on board naval support ship RFA Fort Victoria,
according to the BBC, while Sky News reported that the RFA Argus was
also in the area.
The parliamentary opposition in Yemen has vowed to prevent Saleh's
return to power, following a crackdown on anti-regime protests that has
killed at least 200 people.
"We will work with all our strength to prevent his return,"
parliamentary opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan told AFP. "We see
this as the beginning of the end of this tyrannical and corrupt regime."
The president underwent two "successful" operations on Sunday, a
Saudi official in Riyadh told AFP. "The first was to remove a piece of
shrapnel from his chest, and the second was neurosurgery to his neck.
"The next procedure will be for cosmetic surgical purposes. The period
of convalescence is two weeks, after which he will return to Sanaa," the
official said on condition of anonymity. The embattled president, in
power in Sanaa since 1978, had flown to Riyadh on a Saudi medical
aircraft late on Saturday, while a second plane carried members of his
family. Saudi Arabia said on Monday it had received Saleh at his request
and out of religious duty. Sanaa, Tuesday, AFP
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