Yemen's president urged the opposition to join talks in Saudi Arabia to try to end weeks of turmoil and violence in which at least three more people were killed on Tuesday. Faced with mass demonstrations demanding an end to his 32-year rule, President Ali Abdullah Saleh is clinging to power in the poorest country in the Middle East, from which al Qaeda has planned attacks on the United States.
The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) on Monday invited government and opposition representatives to talks in Saudi Arabia, at a date yet to be set, with the United States pressing the veteran political survivor to negotiate with his opponents. Saleh, who ignored a transition-of-power plan offered by the opposition on Saturday, accepted the Arab Gulf states' invitation on Tuesday and urged the opposition to follow suit.
"I promise that we will make every effort to return things to normal through talks with rational people from the Joint Meetings Party," he said, referring to the main opposition coalition. "We repeat our invitation to them to sit at the table of dialogue and we call for a restraint from violence."
The United States has long seen Saleh as a pivotal ally in its fight against al Qaeda. In return for billions of dollars in military aid, he has pledged to fight militants and allowed unpopular US air strikes on their camps. Three people died and 15 were wounded in the capital on Tuesday when Saleh supporters clashed with protesters, the defence ministry said. General Mohsen said the incident was an attempt to assassinate him.
More than 100 people have been killed since anti-government protests began in Yemen, including the March 18 killings of 52 anti-government protesters by rooftop snipers in Sanaa. On Tuesday, security forces and armed men again attacked a crowd of tens of thousands of protesters in Taiz, residents said, and protesters responded by hurling rocks.
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