SANA'A - Yemen's president has made a new offer on Wednesday to protesters proposing he stays in office until elections are held but transferring his powers to a caretaker government. Ali Abdullah Saleh made his offer at a meeting on Tuesday night with Mohammed al-Yadoumi, head of the Islamist Islah party. It was the first time Saleh had dealt with Islah, once a partner in his government, an opposition spokesmen said. “The opposition could pick a head of government of its own choosing and there would be parliamentary elections by the end of the year,” an opposition source said of Saleh's offer. He said the opposition was still considering its response. Weeks of protests by many thousands in Sanaa and other cities have sent Saleh's 32-year rule to the brink of collapse, but the United States and top oil producer Saudi Arabia, a key Yemen financer, are worried over who could succeed their ally. They have long regarded Saleh as a bulwark of stability who can keep al Qaeda from extending its foothold in an Arabian Peninsula country that many see as close to disintegration. Yemen's al Qaeda wing claimed responsibility for a foiled attempt in late 2009 to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit, and for US-bound cargo bombs sent in October 2010. US officials have said openly they like working with Saleh — who has allowed unpopular US air strikes in Yemen against al Qaeda — and Saleh has said the US ambassador in Sana'a is involved in talks to find a solution. Any agreement between Saleh and the parties could run into trouble from another party — the protesters. A coalition of protester groups calling themselves the Youth Revolution issued a statement on Wednesday saying they would not leave the large public space near Sana'a University until Saleh and his allies are removed from power. “A temporary presidential council of five individuals known for experience and integrity should run the country for an interim period (of six months),” it said, adding the council should appoint a technocrat to form a caretaker government. It also called for corruption trials, return of “stolen public and private property”, release of political detainees, dissolving state security forces and closing the information ministry — steps taken in Tunisia and Egypt after similar pro-democracy uprisings had removed entrenched leaders. They called for dialogue over the complaints of northern Shi'ites and southerners who lean towards secession. Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, a key tribal figure who belongs to the Islah party, told Reuters on Tuesday Islah and the opposition could handle the militant issue better than Saleh, whose government he said was not serious in confronting them. “I think Yemenis would be capable to free Yemen of terror within months,” Ahmar said, adding that the United States and European countries should call directly for Saleh's departure. “They should do what they did in Egypt. We don't need what is going on in Libya. We don't need that much support. But support like what was done in Egypt would be enough to finish things,” he said. Protesters and opposition parties suspect incidents of lax security over the past week are government ploys to demonstrate to foreign powers that Saleh is the strongman who can hold the impoverished country together. Islamists took control of a town in the central province of Abyan after government security deserted it, and the governors of Saada and Jawf provinces in the north also quit, prompting “popular committees” who back the protest movement to step in. The opposition says Saleh is to blame for the presence of militants, including al Qaeda, in the Abyan city of Jaar, where an explosion at a bullet factory killed 140 people on Monday. A perennial survivor of civil wars and militancy, Saleh has said Yemen could drift into armed conflict and fragment along regional and tribal lines if he leaves office immediately. Saleh, who has been alternately conciliatory and defiant, has vowed in public to make no more concessions to opponents. But talks have been going on behind the scenes for days. This week, Saleh's General People's Congress proposed a new government to activate his earlier offers of a new constitution ahead of early parliamentary and presidential elections. He said in February he would not run for re-election when his term expires in 2013. The opposition says it believes Saleh is manoeuvring to avoid limits on his family's future political activities and secure a guarantee they will not be prosecuted for corruption. Some ideas that were floated included both Saleh and General Mohsen, a kinsman and former ally seen as Yemen's second most powerful man, stepping down together as well as Saleh handing over power to a new vice-president.
