Saleh pleads for power sharing
Source : Mohammed Ghobari and Mohammed Mukhashaf | Reuters
SANAA/ADEN | 07 Jul 2011
Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh appeared on television on Thursday for the first time since an assassination attempt a month ago and said he was ready to share power within the constitution's framework.
Saleh, who is being treated in a Riyadh hospital after the June 3 attack, was barely recognizable and sat stiffly as he spoke in the pre-recorded statement broadcast on Yemeni television.
He said he had undergone "more than eight successful operations from the burns sustained in the accident" and called for dialogue.
"Where are the men who fear God? Why don't they stand with dialogue and with reaching satisfactory solutions" for all Yemenis? asked the veteran president, who has been the target of anti-regime protests since January.
Saleh welcomed power sharing. "We welcome the sharing within the framework of the constitution and in the framework of the law."
Saleh thanked Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has come under domestic and international pressure to assume power during the president's absence, "for his efforts in bridging gaps between all political parties" in Yemen.
The speech lasted only a few minutes and was followed by footage of fireworks lighting up the sky in Sanaa.
Hadi meanwhile has put forward a new plan to end the country's political stalemate, which would keep Saleh in power longer than outlined in earlier initiatives, an opposition source said earlier Thursday.
A Gulf initiative that would have seen Saleh resign 30 days after signing it fell through three times when he backed out at the last minute, leaving the country in political limbo.
An opposition leader said Hadi, who is at the helm while Saleh recovers in Riyadh, had approached the opposition with an alternative to the GCC initiative. "The essence of these ideas is to begin the transitional period by forming a national government led by the opposition and changing the date of presidential elections from 60 days to a longer period, without transferring power completely to the vice president," said the opposition figure, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity after the meeting with Hadi. The new plan is a step backward for the opposition, which had hoped Saleh's time was up when he left the country to get medical treatment after the bomb attack.
When the opposition leader insisted the transitional period could not begin until Saleh resigned, Hadi said he would not.
Violence continued unabated in the country. At least 10 soldiers were killed in a fresh attack by militants on an army base near the southern town of Zinjibar, where a brigade has been trapped for more than a month. A local official said militants had started shelling the base late on Wednesday.
Yemen's south has descended into bloodshed in recent months, with militants suspected of links to Al-Qaeda seizing two cities in the flashpoint province of Abyan, including Zinjibar, its capital.
