Global Arab Network | Yemen: Saleh's vow to return keeps nation guessing

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Yemen: Saleh's vow to return keeps nation guessing

Tuesday, 23 August 2011 00:47

Global Arab Network - Burned, wounded and forced into medical exile in Riyadh, Ali Abdullah Saleh had seemed down and out, but a bravura speech by the Yemeni leader suggests he might yet return home to a country convulsed by months of unrest, violence and economic misery.

Saleh, visibly healthier than the gaunt, scarred figure who appeared in a televised speech five weeks ago, vowed in his address Tuesday to come back, hinting he will track down those behind an attempt to assassinate him in June.

In a touch of melodrama, he signed off with "See you soon in Sanaa" -- delighting several thousand supporters who had gathered to watch him live on television in the Yemeni capital.

Even Yemeni critics who had written him off acknowledged that they might have jumped the gun.

"It was a surprise to all of us," said Abdul Ghani al-Iryani, a political analyst and co-founder of the Democratic Awakening Movement, referring to Saleh's resilience.

"Saleh's weakness in the early stages of the revolution was exaggerated. We were all at fault in seeing him losing his grip," he said.

"I think the new position of the president will be 'I will transfer power only if the culprits of the assassination attempt leave the country simultaneously'."

Saleh's foreign minister told Reuters last month the government wanted to transfer power via new elections but that the timetable for the president to step down was not realistic.

The veteran leader's tenacity has dismayed many Yemenis who hoped he was gone for good when he flew to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment following a bomb blast at his palace mosque.

Read more at (Reuters)

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