Saleh to leave hospital

Reuters/DPA/Riyadh, Sanaa

President Saleh: to remain in Riyadh for the time being

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will soon leave the Saudi hospital where he has been recuperating from wounds suffered in an attack on his palace, but will remain in Riyadh for the time being, a Yemeni government source said yesterday. Saleh would be moved to Saudi government accommodation in the capital, the source told Reuters. Saleh was forced to seek treatment in Saudi Arabia after a bomb attack in his palace in June capped weeks of fighting with a powerful tribal grouping, leaving parts of Yemen’s capital Sanaa in ruins. Saleh’s prime minister, Ali Mohamed Megawar, injured in the same attack, left hospital and moved into similar official accommodation earlier yesterday, the source said. Saleh has vowed to return to Yemen, in the face of six months of protests demanding an end to his 33-year rule, and a political crisis that has brought the Arab world’s poorest country to the brink of civil war. The deadlock over his fate has seen longstanding conflicts with Islamists and separatists flare anew, raising fears in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the United States that chaos in Yemen could embolden the country’s Al Qaeda wing.

A Yemeni soldier checking people on motorcycles in Sanaa yesterday. A Yemeni official yesterday denied media reports that flights at Sanaa airport had been suspended due to clashes between government forces and supporters of a powerful tribesman

Washington last month urged Saleh to make good on a pledge to leave office under the terms of a deal brokered by Yemen’s Gulf Arab neighbours. Saleh backed out of that pact on three occasions, the last of which ushered the street clashes that culminated in the attack that sent him to hospital in Riyadh. A Yemeni official yesterday denied media reports that flights at Sanaa airport had been suspended due to clashes between government forces and supporters of a powerful tribesman. “The flights to and from the airport operate as normal,” said airport director Nagui al-Morqab. He added in a statement that 17 aircraft had landed at the airport and that a similar number of flights had taken off on Friday. Forces loyal to President Saleh and supporters of Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of the Hashid tribe, clashed in the Sanaa district of Hassaba on Friday afternoon, renewing fears of a wider confrontation between the two sides. In late July, al-Ahmar vowed not to allow Saleh or his sons to rule the country.