Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are trying to broker a deal to have Yemen's president step down and hand over power, possibly to an interim council of tribal and political leaders, sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Ali Abdullah Saleh's at times bloody response to protests, inspired by those in Egypt and Tunisia, against his 32-year rule has tried the patience of his US and Saudi backers.
A variety of official sources say they are now ready to push aside a long-time ally against the Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda in the hope of staving off a chaotic collapse of the poorest Arab state. "The proposal is to have a governing council grouping all the various political parties and tribes for a period that would not exceed three months," one Gulf official told Reuters. The plan is to be presented to Saleh and his opponents at talks to take place soon in Saudi Arabia. "The council will set the way for elections," the Gulf official added, echoing other sources in the region and beyond.
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. That incident, which led Saleh to declare a state of emergency, prompted top Yemeni generals, ambassadors and some tribes to back the protesters, in a major blow to the president.
This week Washington began to shift its policy of public support for Saleh, who has rallied large numbers of supporters and insists he should stay until elections late this year. Saleh stepped up rhetoric over the weekend, telling a crowd of supporters he would defend Yemen with "blood and soul".
Even before the wave of pro-democracy protests against his rule, Saleh was struggling to quell a separatist rebellion in the south and a Shi'ite insurgency in the north. Frustration with Saleh's intransigence may push Yemenis, many of them heavily armed and with experience of wars and insurgencies, closer to a violent power struggle that could give al Qaeda's regional wing more room to operate.
All of these factors spark concern for stability in a country that sits on a shipping lane through which more than three million barrels of oil pass each day. In the latest unrest, tens of thousands protested in the city of Taiz, south of Sanaa, on Wednesday and security forces fired shots into the air to try to disperse them. There were no reports of casualties.
Security forces and armed men in civilian clothes fired on protesters in Taiz and the Red Sea port of Hudaida on Monday, killing 21 people. The next day they again fired at a crowd of tens of thousands of protesters in Taiz, wounding dozens. Protesters responded by hurling rocks. Three people were killed in clashes in the capital Sanaa. Local analysts say Saleh's party's ability to draw big support rallies emboldens him, even as hundreds of thousands demand his resignation.