Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected an opposition plan for him to step aside this year, as protests against his three-decade rule over the impoverished nation swelled into hundreds of thousands. The opposition said Saleh, a US ally against al Qaeda, was sticking to an earlier plan to step down only when his current term ends in 2013 but had agreed to a proposal by religious leaders to revamp elections, parliament and the judicial system.
"The president rejected the proposal and is holding on to his previous offer," said the opposition's rotating president Mohammed al-Mutawakil. There was no direct word from Saleh. Yemen, a neighbour of Saudi Arabia, was teetering on the brink of failed statehood even before recent protests, with Saleh struggling to cement a truce with Shia rebels in the north and quell a budding secessionist rebellion in the south. "Oh God, God please get rid of Ali Abdullah," demonstrators chanted in the capital Sanaa, where protests stretched back for more than 2 km in the streets around Sanaa University.
Political analysts say growing protests, inspired by unrest that has toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia, may be reaching a point where it will be difficult even for Saleh, a clever political survivalist, to cling to power. In the north, Shia Muslim rebels accused the Yemeni army of firing rockets on a protest in Harf Sufyan, where thousands had gathered. Two people were killed and 13 injured. "During a peaceful protest this Friday morning ... demanding the fall of the regime, an end to corruption and political change, a military post fired rockets at a group of protesters and hit dozens of people," a statement from the rebels said.
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