SANA'A: In an interview with France 24 Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he has the intention of stepping down as president of the troubled country. The embattled autocrat assured the TV Channel that he was more than willing to leavem adding that he would hand in his resignation with 90 days of the signature of power-transfer agreement as specified by the GCC brokered proposal. Despite having debunked on his promises four times already, Saleh is still claiming to be dedicated to the deal, arguing that he had already vested his Vice-President Abdu Rabbo Mansoor Hadi with the necessary powers to negotiate with the political opposition, the JMP (Joint Meeting Parties). “When an agreement on the Gulf initiative is reached, and when it is signed, and when elections are held, the president will leave,” declared Saleh in the interview. The president later said that “anyone who clings to power is mad”, stressing that after 33 years as head of the state he knew what he was talking about. In regards to the sticky point of the restructuring of the armed forces, Saleh there too declared that the matter was not issue at all since, “the army belongs to the homeland and is not a personal property.” Despite these renewed assurances, several politicians from the opposition are saying that Saleh is only trying to further stall the negotiation process. “Saleh wants to preserve all his powers until the election of a new president and that is rejected by the opposition and because of this the UN envoy's mission is going to fail.” In closing the interview President Saleh accused “a weightless and insignificant state” of promoting what he calls the “Arab anarchy”, in what seemed to be a direct attack against the State of Qatar. BM
