Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh has accused defecting generals of trying to stage a coup against him, saying the country will descend into a bloody civil war if he is forced to step down.
“Those trying to wrest power through coups should know that this is impossible,” Saleh said in a defiant speech on television on Tuesday. “The fatherland will be made unstable, there will be war, a bloody civil war. They should reflect carefully on this.” Saleh, who has been president of Yemen for 32 years, is under mounting pressure to step down following seven weeks of anti-government protest and defection among the ruling elite.
He announced on Tuesday that he would accept a proposal for an early departure from office, in January 2012, although it remained unclear when or how a transfer of power would take place.
Previously he had offered to leave only by 2013. The Joint Meeting Parties, Yemen’s opposition coalition, said they would accept nothing short of immediate resignation. “The opposition rejects the offer, as the coming hours will be decisive,” said opposition spokesperson Mohammed al-Sabri.
Scenes of jubilation among protesters at Sana’a University quickly dissolved into anger and frustration as news of Saleh’s speech spread. Demonstrators have been living in tents on the campus for the past five weeks demanding the president’s resignation. Tribesmen from Yemen’s eastern desert province of Marib set fire to a towering pile of placards bearing pictures of the president on hearing that he would not step down.
“Like our brothers in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, we have one simple request: that the president steps down now. If he doesn’t, I think there will be bloodshed,” said Mahmud Saeed (21), who was dousing the smouldering heap of wood with petrol. Saleh’s defiance was unexpected. The fate of the embattled president now looks to be sealed as high-level officials, including senior army commander Major General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, abandon him and support the protesters. Seventeen foreign diplomats, including the Yemeni ambassador to the UK, also resigned this week.
Saleh suffered a further setback when Abdel-Malik Mansour, Yemen’s representative to the Arab League, told Al Arabiya television he was backing the protesters. Abdul-Rahman al-Iryani, the minister of water and environment, who was dismissed with the remainder of the Cabinet on Sunday, also said he was joining “the revolutionaries”.
‘Joining the revolution’
In his letter of resignation, Iryani said: “It is becoming ridiculous that every member of the regime is now joining the revolution, when in fact they should surrender themselves to the revolution for trial for crimes that they committed against the people or looked the other way while these crimes were perpetrated on the people. Also, they should pledge not to occupy any public office in the future.”
Military units appeared to have taken sides in the capital, with the Republican Guard protecting the palace of the president and soldiers from the First Armoured Division under Ali Mohsen protecting the throngs of protesters in Sana’a. Late yesterday Yemen Defence Minister Mohammad Nasser Ali set the scene for possible confrontation between the two, saying the army would back Saleh against any coup attempt.
Analysts are worried that if political agreement is not reached soon, a violent military showdown will ensue. “The situation we face at the moment is untenable,” said Abdulghani Iryani, a political analyst. “With two army factions facing off in the capital, the risk of a spark is huge.
“Saleh has started waving the threat of a civil war in the hope that it will buy him enough time to make an honourable exit. In reality, he has days left before things turn violent here.” Clashes broke out this week between the Republican Guard, an elite force led by the president’s son, Ahmed, and Yemen’s regular army, in the southern city of Mukalla. Two soldiers died.
Yemen is under a 30-day state of emergency called by Saleh following a sniper attack by plain-clothed government loyalists last Friday which left 52 protesters dead in the capital and caused even the president’s own tribe to demand his resignation. The United States has long viewed Yemen as a key partner in the fight against al-Qaeda. President Barack Obama has called for a “peaceful transition” in the country, but it is not exactly clear what that would entail, given that there is no obvious successor to Saleh.
Analysts warn that the important issues in Yemen go far beyond that of Saleh’s departure from the presidency. “What’s at stake in Yemen is not just the risk that the country’s unity could disintegrate, but the very real danger that Islamist extremists like al-Qaeda will take advantage of Yemen’s divisions to turn it into a veritable sanctuary for international terrorists,” said Harry Sterling, a former Canadian diplomat who has worked in Yemen. — Guardian News & Media 2011