An aide to President Barack Obama met yesterday with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Saudi Arabia and asked him to fulfill a pledge to step down after more than three decades in power.
Saleh is in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, recovering from injuries sustained during a June 3 attack on his presidential compound in Sanaa, Yemen. John Brennan, Obama’s assistant for counterterrorism and homeland security, urged Saleh “to fulfill expeditiously his pledge to sign the GCC-brokered agreement for peaceful and constitutional political transition in Yemen,” an e-mailed statement from the White House said, referring to a proposal by the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Saleh will return to Yemen on July 17, the 33rd anniversary of his taking office, Al Arabiya television said over the weekend, citing an unidentified official. The official told Al Arabiya that Saleh chose that date to send a message that he’s still the legitimate president of Yemen until September 2013.
Brennan “emphasized the importance of resolving the political crisis in Sanaa,” Yemen’s capital, and wished Saleh “a speedy recovery,” the statement said. He also reiterated the U.S. government’s condemnation of the attack on Saleh.
Hundreds of Yemeni citizens have been killed because of terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the statement said. An end to the political crisis is needed “so that the Yemeni Government and people can successfully confront the serious challenges they face,” the e-mailed statement said.
Immediate Transition
Once the pledge is signed “much needed assistance will flow to Yemen,” according to the statement. “The United States believes that a transition in Yemen should begin immediately so that the Yemeni people can realize their aspirations.”
Saleh said last week that he had eight operations and all were successful. He left his deputy, Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi, in charge. State media has said the president sends messages to heads of state and has discussed a plan for the transition of power proposed by the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Forces in the province of Abyan killed four al-Qaeda militants and wounded two others in clashes, the state-run Saba news agency said, citing a military spokesman. A Yemeni soldier was also killed and 4 others injured in the fight, Saba said.
In Syria, the death toll over the weekend rose to 20, National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said. Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad appointed a new governor to the province of Hama, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
Hama’s New Governor
Anas Abdul-Razzak Na’em is a high-ranking Baathist and holds a higher education certificate in Internal Diseases from the Faculty of Medicine at Damascus University, the Syrian Arab News Agency said. He also holds a diploma from Joseph Fourier- Grenoble University in France, it said.
On July 7, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, met with residents of Hama, a center of anti-regime activity, in a gesture of support for the 500,000 people rallying for the end of rule of President Assad that were under threat from government forces.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned the U.S. and French ambassadors to protest their visits to Hama, which took place without the government’s permission, SANA said.
Ford in turn objected to what the State Department said was a Syrian government-organized protest at the U.S. embassy in Damascus where tomatoes, eggs, glass and rocks were thrown. Two embassy workers were hit by food, according to the State Department.
Opposition Talks
Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara yesterday called for a transition to democracy as he opened a two-day conference in Damascus that aims to start a dialogue with the opposition, whose leading figures boycotted the event. Opponents said they wouldn’t take part as long as the government continues to violently crack down on protests.
Armored Syrian army vehicles stormed some neighborhoods in the province of Homs amid heavy gunfire and tear gas, Al Arabiya reported yesterday. One person had been killed and 20 injured, Al Arabiya said, citing eyewitnesses. The army was staging mass arrests in the province right now, the eyewitnesses told Al Arabiya.
In Egypt, Army troops fired in the air in a clash with stone-throwing protesters in the city of Suez, according to the Associated Press. Egyptian demonstrators there and in the capital of Cairo are demanding the justice system hold trials more quickly of those former officials and policemen accused of killings during the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak five months ago. Thousands had poured into central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, a focus of the protests against Mubarak’s regime, to call for a general strike.
Colonel Islam Rafat, a spokesman for the Egyptian army in Suez, told Al-Shorouk News that a sit-in had ended and tents were removed with the approval of the protesters. More than 1000 Egyptians blocked roads in the province to urge for reforms, the news agency said.
Ten protesters were injured and several arrested after a clash in Suez, Mohamed Abdel Mubdi, one of the protesters, told Al Jazeera.
‘Hundreds of army soldiers used electric sticks to beat the protesters and we threw stones at them,” he said.
