US urges Yemen to enact reform in the absence of Saleh

THE US made clear yesterday that it wants Yemen’s government to seize on the absence of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a bid to effect a peaceful, orderly political transition.

While Yemen’s acting leader insisted Saleh — in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment — would return in days, diplomats and analysts believe his stay may be prolonged as Riyadh tries to press him to hand over power.

“We are calling for a peaceful and orderly transition,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington. “We feel that an immediate transition is in the best interests of the Yemeni people.”

Saleh, 69, is being treated in a Riyadh hospital for shrapnel wounds suffered on Friday in a rocket attack on his palace which killed seven and wounded senior officials.

Pressure has mounted on all parties to find a way to end an uprising against Saleh which has brought Yemen, home to an increasingly active wing of al-Qaida, to the brink of civil war.

A Saudi-brokered truce was holding in the capital, Sanaa, after two weeks of fighting between Saleh’s forces and a tribal group which killed more than 200 people and forced thousands to flee.

But there was fresh fighting in the southern city of Taiz, where the United Nations said it was investigating reports that as many as 50 people have been killed in the past week.

Violence also flared in the southern Abyan province, where armed men killed seven soldiers and wounded 12 others in clashes in Zinjibar.

An opposition party coalition, which joined months of street protests to end Saleh’s three-decade rule, said it backed a transfer of power to the vice-president, Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, now the acting leader.

Hadi said Saleh’s health was improving and he “would return to the homeland in the coming days”.

But a diplomat in the region said: “I don’t think the Saudis or his people want him back. He doesn’t have regional support.”