SANAA – Tens of thousands of demonstrators for and against embattled Yemeni Pesident Ali Abdullah Saleh rallied on Friday, with no resolution in sight after weeks of inconclusive talks amid mounting clashes. The US and Gulf Arab countries including Yemen’s key financial backer, Saudi Arabia, appear ready to push aside a long-time ally against al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing to avoid a chaotic collapse of the poorest Arab state.
“Saleh’s options are gone. The Gulf initiative must have come as a shock from Saudi Arabia, which was his last ally,” said Mohammed Sharqi, the leader of a youth protest movement in Sanaa, refering to a Gulf Arab plan for Saleh to step down. Pro- and anti-Saleh marchers gathered in both the capital and the city of Taiz, south of Sanaa, where the funeral of protesters killed earlier this week could trigger fresh clashes.
Saleh’s sometimes violent response to two months of protests against his 32-year rule has tried the patience of Washington and Riyadh, both of which have been the target of attempted attacks by al Qaeda’s Yemen-based branch. The US froze its largest aid package for Yemen in February after protests began, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“The first instalment of the aid package, worth a potential $1 billion or more over several years, was set to be rolled out in February, marking the White House’s largest bid at securing President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s allegiance in its battle against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” it said.
Citing unnamed US officials, the paper said the proposed package included up to $200 million in counter-terrorism support this fiscal year, up from $155 million in fiscal 2010, as well as a nearly equal amount for development aid. The Washington Post said a Yemeni opposition party leader had told a US embassy official in Sanaa about a secret plan to oust Saleh less than two years ago.
Several previously undisclosed US diplomatic cables provided by the website WikiLeaks revealed that US officials were aware of Yemen’s political state but largely discounted the prospect that Saleh could be forced out, it said.
