SANAA – Massive protests took place across Yemen on Sunday demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as the opposition joined a Gulf Arab meeting in Riyadh on a plan for the leader’s departure.
Security forces deployed heavily in Sanaa where hundreds of thousands of men and women took to the streets in protest against Saleh’s call for an end to men and women joining together in anti-regime protests, and calling for his ouster.
Protesters also took to the streets in the cities of Taez and Ibb, south of Sanaa, and the Red Sea city of Al-Hudaydah, the organisers said. “We want to overthrow the regime and to bring the assailant to justice,” read their banners.
The demonstrations come as foreign ministers of the oil-rich Gulf Arab monarchies are to meet with a delegation from the poverty-stricken country’s opposition in Riyadh who will ask for clarification on the Gulf initiative on Saleh’s departure. The Common Forum, an alliance of the parliamentary opposition, has made Saleh’s departure a prerequisite for any political settlement, while the Gulf Cooperation Council’s bid to resolve the crisis calls for him to hand over power to his vice-president.
Saleh’s office has said in response to the mediation bid of the six-nation GCC he has “no reservation about transferring power peacefully and smoothly within the framework of the constitution”. More than 125 people are estimated to have been killed since protests calling for Saleh’s ouster erupted in late January, inspired by uprisings which toppled long-time rulers in Tunisia and Egypt.
