Yemen president offers to quit by end of year

YEMEN’S president offered to step down by the end of the year yesterday in a bid to appease mounting demands for his resignation, but opposition groups showed no sign of easing up on efforts to force him out.

Weeks of protests against the 32-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the impoverished Arabian state has raised alarm in Western capitals at the prospect of a country where al-Qaida has entrenched itself falling apart. In Cairo, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that Washington had not planned for an era without Saleh in office.

“I think things are obviously, or evidently, very unsettled in Yemen. I think it’s too soon to call an outcome. We’ve had a good working relationship with President Saleh. He’s been an important ally in the counter-terrorism arena,” Gates said speaking in Cairo.

“But clearly there’s a lot of unhappiness inside Yemen. And I think we will basically just continue to watch the situation. We haven’t done any post-Saleh planning,” he added.

Saleh, whose opponents have been inspired by the fall of dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, has been an ally of Washington and of Saudi Arabia in the confrontation against al-Qaida.

But the killing of more than 50 demonstrators on Friday has accelerated a wave of defections to the opposition by the elite.

Having tried at first to fend off calls to quit by saying he would not seek a new term in 2013, Saleh has since made greater concessions and yesterday offered constitutional change and elections to replace parliament and the head of state this year.

“At this historic moment Yemen needs wisdom to avoid slipping into violence ... that would destroy gains and leave the country facing a dangerous fate,” Saleh said in a letter passed to opposition groups in a bid to reconcile differences.

Opposition groups, which had earlier called for massive rallies in the capital Sanaa on Friday to force Saleh from power, said they were studying the offer.

The letter, also sent to army commander Ali Mohsen, who has declared support for the protesters, contained a proposal to hold a referendum on a new constitution, then a parliamentary election followed by a presidential poll before the end of 2011.

Yemen borders the world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and major shipping routes. Al-Qaida cells in Yemen have in the past two years attempted attacks outside Yemeni soil in Saudi Arabia and the US.

It is unclear who might follow Saleh and the country faces the danger of fragmentation.

Saleh sacked his cabinet and declared a state of emergency after Friday’s killings — which parliament rubber stamped on Wednesday for a 30-day period. But the bloodshed has lent protests a new severity.

Complaining of neglect, southerners have said they want to secede and minority Shi’ites in the north have staged several rebellions against Saleh.

Security sources said Saleh had beefed up his personal security for fear of an assassination attempt or a coup